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Tory Cabinet Thread


Bjornebye
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This is a really good analysis piece about how the Tories will try and position the latest scandal...

 

'There is a danger that Boris Johnson will spin this as something general – a flaw in the system, a crisis for politics itself – thereby blinding us to what is in front of our noses: the return of Tory sleaze. Though even that word is too mild.  The sleaze stories of the 1990s are dwarfed by this week’s revelations, which suggest not only serial abuse of office by a former Conservative prime minister, but a pattern of corruption at the heart of this Tory government.

 

The evidence was mounting up already. The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, rushing through an “unlawful” planning decision benefiting property developer and Tory donor Richard Desmond, saving the former porn publisher £45m in local taxes. A fast-track for those with friends in high places, allowing the well-connected to jump the queue when the PPE procurement contracts were handed out early in the Covid crisis, so that companies with no relevant experience – but a bulging contacts book – landed contracts worth hundreds of millions. Jennifer Arcuri, Johnson’s former lover, receiving £126,000 in public money, some of it from London’s City Hall while Johnson was mayor. Priti Patel breaking the ministerial code, yet holding on to her job while the official who reached that verdict is out of his – leaving the post vacant, which means behaviour by ministers has gone unscrutinised for five months.

 

On top of all that, we now know that current Tory cabinet ministers were in regular touch – texting or sharing a pint – with their former boss David Cameron, as he used his status as an ex-PM and the privileged access it gave him to pitch on behalf of his new employer, Lex Greensill. If Cameron could get his one-time colleagues and subordinates to do as he asked, he stood to pocket a staggering $60m. What’s more, this week we discovered that in Cameron’s government, holders of top civil service posts were simultaneously moonlighting for Greensill, and that they were allowed to do so. They were paid by you and me to guard the public purse, but they were also looking out for a finance company that proved so dodgy it collapsed.

 

What would you call that record, if not Tory sleaze? And yet instead of fearing that cronyism and corruption will be their undoing, the Conservatives, buoyed up by a Times poll showing them 14 points ahead, can see a double way out. First, they can pretend that most of this happened under a previous regime, the Cameron administration, an entity wholly unconnected with the current government. That approach has a particular appeal to Johnson: he can throw his Eton rival under the bus. But it won’t wash. From 2010 till today, the Conservative party has ruled the country. Its partners and personnel may have changed, but it is the same party.

 

The other, more inviting Tory path is to nod earnestly and concede that this is a systemic problem, one that affects all parties and which should be cleaned up. This rests on the assertion that Labour are just as rotten, and draws strength from the populist catechism that all politicians are as bad as each other, all in it for themselves. Johnson gave a run-out to that argument at prime minister’s questions, hitting back at Keir Starmer by noting the business activities of Labour peer Peter Mandelson, now back as an unofficial adviser to the Labour leader.

 

There’s a rich vein for Johnson to mine. Several New Labour luminaries were caught in lobbying scandals of their own, while Tony Blair notoriously cashed in after leaving office in 2007. And didn’t the rot set in with New Labour’s fondness for bringing private sector executives into the civil service? As for corruption, last month’s verdict on Labour’s governance of Liverpool city council could hardly be more damning. All of which makes it tempting, for the media especially, to cast the current crisis as a plague-on-all-your-houses problem of all parties.

Cameron passed a lobbying act, but it was never meant to curb corruption

 

Labour has to fight that impulse hard. It can admit that Blair made a fortune working for assorted hideous regimes, but he never lobbied the British government for profit as Cameron did. And yes, Labour brought various commercial figures into Whitehall but they did not work for private companies at the same time. More easily, Starmer the former prosecutor can say the party is under new management now and he will have zero tolerance of sleaze wherever he finds it, whether that’s in Liverpool or in the construction project that was supposed to cost Unite members £35m, but ended up costing £98m, after the contract was awarded to one of Len McCluskey’s pals.

 

Johnson cannot make a similarly clean break, partly because of the Arcuri affair, which implicates him directly, and partly because the abusers and disgracers of office in his cabinet remain there: he sacked neither Jenrick nor Patel, and no heads have rolled over PPE procurement. On the contrary, the “disruptor” ethos embodied by Johnson’s ex-svengali Dominic Cummings positively glorifies rule-breaking. The arrogance that comes with an 80-seat majority only feeds that sense of impunity.

 

Of course, Labour can propose a battery of systemic changes. That could include a ban on lobbying by former office holders, preventing them from influencing the decision-makers they used to work with; a new integrity commission with the power of sanction, rather than the mere right to write stiff but ignorable letters; an end to civil service moonlighting; and repair of the currently broken freedom of information regime, to ensure transparency.

 

Labour can argue for that as policy, but must not forget the politics. Once the current vaccine bounce dips, which it will, the Tories will be vulnerable to attack. This is a charge that resonates: that they’ve been in too long, that too many look out for themselves, that it’s one rule for them and their mates, another rule for the rest of us. Tory sleaze is a slogan that cuts through for one reason above all: because it’s true.'

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33 minutes ago, Bruce Spanner said:

This is a really good analysis piece about how the Tories will try and position the latest scandal...

 

'There is a danger that Boris Johnson will spin this as something general – a flaw in the system, a crisis for politics itself – thereby blinding us to what is in front of our noses: the return of Tory sleaze. Though even that word is too mild.  The sleaze stories of the 1990s are dwarfed by this week’s revelations, which suggest not only serial abuse of office by a former Conservative prime minister, but a pattern of corruption at the heart of this Tory government.

 

The evidence was mounting up already. The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, rushing through an “unlawful” planning decision benefiting property developer and Tory donor Richard Desmond, saving the former porn publisher £45m in local taxes. A fast-track for those with friends in high places, allowing the well-connected to jump the queue when the PPE procurement contracts were handed out early in the Covid crisis, so that companies with no relevant experience – but a bulging contacts book – landed contracts worth hundreds of millions. Jennifer Arcuri, Johnson’s former lover, receiving £126,000 in public money, some of it from London’s City Hall while Johnson was mayor. Priti Patel breaking the ministerial code, yet holding on to her job while the official who reached that verdict is out of his – leaving the post vacant, which means behaviour by ministers has gone unscrutinised for five months.

 

On top of all that, we now know that current Tory cabinet ministers were in regular touch – texting or sharing a pint – with their former boss David Cameron, as he used his status as an ex-PM and the privileged access it gave him to pitch on behalf of his new employer, Lex Greensill. If Cameron could get his one-time colleagues and subordinates to do as he asked, he stood to pocket a staggering $60m. What’s more, this week we discovered that in Cameron’s government, holders of top civil service posts were simultaneously moonlighting for Greensill, and that they were allowed to do so. They were paid by you and me to guard the public purse, but they were also looking out for a finance company that proved so dodgy it collapsed.

 

What would you call that record, if not Tory sleaze? And yet instead of fearing that cronyism and corruption will be their undoing, the Conservatives, buoyed up by a Times poll showing them 14 points ahead, can see a double way out. First, they can pretend that most of this happened under a previous regime, the Cameron administration, an entity wholly unconnected with the current government. That approach has a particular appeal to Johnson: he can throw his Eton rival under the bus. But it won’t wash. From 2010 till today, the Conservative party has ruled the country. Its partners and personnel may have changed, but it is the same party.

 

The other, more inviting Tory path is to nod earnestly and concede that this is a systemic problem, one that affects all parties and which should be cleaned up. This rests on the assertion that Labour are just as rotten, and draws strength from the populist catechism that all politicians are as bad as each other, all in it for themselves. Johnson gave a run-out to that argument at prime minister’s questions, hitting back at Keir Starmer by noting the business activities of Labour peer Peter Mandelson, now back as an unofficial adviser to the Labour leader.

 

There’s a rich vein for Johnson to mine. Several New Labour luminaries were caught in lobbying scandals of their own, while Tony Blair notoriously cashed in after leaving office in 2007. And didn’t the rot set in with New Labour’s fondness for bringing private sector executives into the civil service? As for corruption, last month’s verdict on Labour’s governance of Liverpool city council could hardly be more damning. All of which makes it tempting, for the media especially, to cast the current crisis as a plague-on-all-your-houses problem of all parties.

Cameron passed a lobbying act, but it was never meant to curb corruption

 

Labour has to fight that impulse hard. It can admit that Blair made a fortune working for assorted hideous regimes, but he never lobbied the British government for profit as Cameron did. And yes, Labour brought various commercial figures into Whitehall but they did not work for private companies at the same time. More easily, Starmer the former prosecutor can say the party is under new management now and he will have zero tolerance of sleaze wherever he finds it, whether that’s in Liverpool or in the construction project that was supposed to cost Unite members £35m, but ended up costing £98m, after the contract was awarded to one of Len McCluskey’s pals.

 

Johnson cannot make a similarly clean break, partly because of the Arcuri affair, which implicates him directly, and partly because the abusers and disgracers of office in his cabinet remain there: he sacked neither Jenrick nor Patel, and no heads have rolled over PPE procurement. On the contrary, the “disruptor” ethos embodied by Johnson’s ex-svengali Dominic Cummings positively glorifies rule-breaking. The arrogance that comes with an 80-seat majority only feeds that sense of impunity.

 

Of course, Labour can propose a battery of systemic changes. That could include a ban on lobbying by former office holders, preventing them from influencing the decision-makers they used to work with; a new integrity commission with the power of sanction, rather than the mere right to write stiff but ignorable letters; an end to civil service moonlighting; and repair of the currently broken freedom of information regime, to ensure transparency.

 

Labour can argue for that as policy, but must not forget the politics. Once the current vaccine bounce dips, which it will, the Tories will be vulnerable to attack. This is a charge that resonates: that they’ve been in too long, that too many look out for themselves, that it’s one rule for them and their mates, another rule for the rest of us. Tory sleaze is a slogan that cuts through for one reason above all: because it’s true.'

An excellent post.

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The big challenge that Starmer has is to overcome the widespread and politically illiterate belief that "they're all the same". I've no idea how, but he needs to position himself so that people recognise Tory corruption as a specifically Tory problem; one that goes away if you elect a Labour Government. 

 

(May be worth noting that the last bloke, despite being the MP with the lowest expenses claims, never managed to break through "they're all the same" either.)

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12 minutes ago, PrivateParts said:

The big challenge that Starmer has is to overcome the widespread and politically illiterate belief that "they're all the same". I've no idea how, but he needs to position himself so that people recognise Tory corruption as a specifically Tory problem; one that goes away if you elect a Labour Government. 

 

(May be worth noting that the last bloke, despite being the MP with the lowest expenses claims, never managed to break through "they're all the same" either.)

When the PM is allows to shout bullshit back and the media don’t properly report the truth he’s got no chance.  Nobody has against these corrupt cunts 

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23 minutes ago, PrivateParts said:

We've used a lot of words to describe the Tories on here.

 

Here are a few we haven't used.

 

We should all chip in and book the meet and greet thing through his website then nominate someone to turn up and boot the fukcing gobshite all over the place. 

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26 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

We should all chip in and book the meet and greet thing through his website then nominate someone to turn up and boot the fukcing gobshite all over the place. 

Couldn't we all just turn up and take turns?

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On 17/04/2021 at 10:27, PrivateParts said:

(May be worth noting that the last bloke, despite being the MP with the lowest expenses claims, never managed to break through "they're all the same" either.)

 

I thought we'd put this myth to bed before. No matter.

 

Jeremy Corbyn’s toner cartridge. One of the most resilient factoids… | by Stan Anson | Medium

 

One of the most resilient factoids about Jeremy Corbyn is that his parliamentary expenses are lower than any other MP’s. In its most ludicrous form the meme has it that he one year claimed for nothing more than a toner cartridge. As is usual with tales of Corbyn’s otherworldly virtue, none of this is true.

 

1*TnANRDIUAGA5jB0nMSyttA.png

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CUlTuRE wArz!!!

 

'Equalities minister claims Labour wants to create 'divisive atmosphere' around race

 

In response to Kemi Badenoch, Marsha de Cordova, her Labour shadow, strongly condemned the report. She said that it was “incoherent”, that it downplayed the importance of institutional and structural racism and that it effectively blamed ethnic minorities for their own disadvantages.

 

She said it had been widely discredited, and that its conclusions were “ideologically motivated”. She was surprised to hear Badenoch defending it, she said. The minister was defending the indefensible, she claimed. She said commissioners have said that No 10 rewrote parts of the report.

 

In response, Badenoch said that Labour wanted to create a “divisive atmosphere” around race. She criticised De Cordova for not condemning the racist abuse levelled at the commissioners, and she said that Labour was “functionally innumerate” because it refused to accept the statistics in the report.'

 

Just fuck off you insidious cunts.

 

I remember at the time of publication reading some analysis of it that said that is what the report, and the way it's finding were presented, were for. To drive a wedge between 'Lefty/woke' and 'ordinary folk/patriots' and let this drive the narrative to the next election by positioning labour as woke and out of touch with 'the common man'. To effectively blame the left for racism as it's only their over reaction to things that causes the problem as the tories have 'ended racism' with this report.

 

Fuck 'the common man'.

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34 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

Like almost everyone in the country, I'd never heard anything about toner cartridges; so much for a "resilient factoid".

 

Even if he wasn't actually the lowest, he was certainly reported to be the lowest (even the usual hate-mob didn't attack him on those grounds... for some reason) but that didn't cut through the "they're all the same" perception, so my point still stands.

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59 minutes ago, Rushies tash said:

One thing all this ESL nonsense has done is taken corruption allegations not just out of the headlines, but seemingly off the news altogether. It seems that 'rows that won't go away' only apply to Labour. They disappear sharpish when it comes to this shower of cunts.

Might be good for Labour it does disappear. The media have turned it on the unions and Rachel Reeves doesn't seem able to convey that a union lobbying for a collective one per cent pay rise for nurses is not the same as David Cameron lobbying to steal millions from the NHS. 

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36 minutes ago, Gnasher said:

Might be good for Labour it does disappear. The media have turned it on the unions and Rachel Reeves doesn't seem able to convey that a union lobbying for a collective one per cent pay rise for nurses is not the same as David Cameron lobbying to steal millions from the NHS. 

Probably because she is somebody who would be more comfortable appropriating money at corporate level than having any sympathy with a worker. Probably why she will get promoted.

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2 hours ago, Rushies tash said:

One thing all this ESL nonsense has done is taken corruption allegations not just out of the headlines, but seemingly off the news altogether. It seems that 'rows that won't go away' only apply to Labour. They disappear sharpish when it comes to this shower of cunts.

It's the media though responsible for that. Most of them are lightweights and the ones who aren't like Emily Maitlis are quickly slapped down. The only news organisations  that are investing heavily are right wing ones like GB News, while the likes of the Huff post disappear into oblivion. 

 

The media and the narrative that's communicated through them is the British ruling class's weapon of choice, they don't need coppers and troops to enforce their shit, they just normalise it by hammering you with the same stuff again and again. 

 

Left wing or non government types become low hanging fruit for the right wing and/or less capable journalists because there are no serious repercussions to going after them. You can get endless stories out of Ed Miliban's bacon sandwich eating because it's easy news and nobody who matters is going to give you grief. 

 

That's why this David Cameron stuff is suspicious, he hasn't done anything unusual in that world from what I can tell, yet suddenly Murdoch's press are running investigations on him and he's suddenly been propped up as some kind of sacrificial lamb. 

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29 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

It's the media though responsible for that. Most of them are lightweights and the ones who aren't like Emily Maitlis are quickly slapped down. The only news organisations  that are investing heavily are right wing ones like GB News, while the likes of the Huff post disappear into oblivion. 

 

The media and the narrative that's communicated through them is the British ruling class's weapon of choice, they don't need coppers and troops to enforce their shit, they just normalise it by hammering you with the same stuff again and again. 

 

Left wing or non government types become low hanging fruit for the right wing and/or less capable journalists because there are no serious repercussions to going after them. You can get endless stories out of Ed Miliban's bacon sandwich eating because it's easy news and nobody who matters is going to give you grief. 

 

That's why this David Cameron stuff is suspicious, he hasn't done anything unusual in that world from what I can tell, yet suddenly Murdoch's press are running investigations on him and he's suddenly been propped up as some kind of sacrificial lamb. 

Whilst I agree with the post as a whole and yes the Financial Times are technically a Murdoch paper the journalists who work for that the Financial are amongst the best in the business. Unlike the main paper the Financial Times has a history of breaking stories through good undercover journalism.

 

https://www.ft.com/content/6ceffa62-36ca-11e9-bd3a-8b2a211d90d5

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