Tory Cabinet Thread

[Harry's Lad]

4 minutes ago, Colonel Bumcunt said:

This explains so much.  Stuffed away in the Duchy of Lancaster role, despite being the best orator in the party. 

Possibly the best fellator too! allegedly. 

[Kepler-186]

Hello,
Welcome to today’s Sensemaker. (Tortoise)
Tuesday 29 June 2021
Chris Cook
 

Secret emails. The UK government is under pressure at the moment over one of its normal practices: officials and ministers routinely use private communications channels – private email, WhatsApp messages – to do government work. Matt Hancock, the departed health secretary, and Lord Bethell, a still-serving junior minister, both used unofficial email accounts for work. A third health minister, Helen Whately, has now been caught too. Labour is calling for an investigation. 

This was, you might recall, a major issue back in 2016 for Hillary Clinton: the use of a private set of accounts from during her time as secretary of state dogged her presidential campaign. It is a problem for modern government. And it is banal, but extremely important:

• Keeping public information off public systems means that important data may be missed when Freedom of Information requests are made – or when courts require disclosures. 
• What if private health information were disclosed to an official and they then leave their job? And are these private accounts secure from Russian hackers, say?
• Allowing communications on official business in a way that allows the corrupt or incompetent to hide and destroy traces of discussions is a bad idea. 
• We are supposed to keep good records of decisions for the benefit of historians, but also so that people can understand the rationale and purpose of policy decisions. 

(I should declare an interest: the guidance in force now is all a result of reporting I did at the FT (£) a decade ago on this behaviour at the Department for Education: Michael Gove, then the secretary of state, was using his wife’s email for government business, then denying the emails existed.)

As a general rule, the bits of government that are bad on transparency are weak on things like private email use. And the bits of government that are bad on transparency are bad at everything. The Cabinet Office, the most rotten, dysfunctional and dishonest pillar of the British state, is also its most secretive – and a part of government where private systems are prevalent.

The law, in truth, is clever: it cares about whether information ought to be public, and does not care about the medium. If the PM uses an official email address to arrange dinner with his wife, that is not accessible under the Freedom of Information Act. If he uses WhatsApp to talk about procurement, then it is. Likewise: courts do not care about the letterhead on the email. 

The core problem we have is that if public officials use private accounts, we have to trust them to disclose from those accounts in response to search requests. And if they are the prime minister, say, officials might think getting them to hand over their phone, or engage with an FOIA request themselves, is a bit much. So things will go unseen and unfound. Given the cronyism questions that beset this government, this is serious.

But there’s a simpler issue too. The rules say they shouldn’t do it. Under the law (section 46 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for example), they are required to keep proper records. That should be enough.

Adieu. This will be my last Sensemaker: many thanks to many readers who got in touch over the past few years with their kind thoughts and corrections. I’m a co-author on a piece coming out this Thursday in our file and, tonight, I am chairing a ThinkIn on saving the high street. Please, join me.

 

Reckon Gove’s missus would love a look at his official one. She’ll have to change her Twitter name though. The hag. 

 

[Anubis]

That’s harsh. On hags.

[Bruce Spanner]

Hoyle finally showing some backbone and calling the cunts out.

 

Said that it's a disgrace that they do not attend and send a lacky for uncomfortable EQ's so he will continue to grant them to expose the questions and allow the debates around them.

 

Seems like he's had enough.

[sir roger]

There is a Business Minister , Anne Marie Trevelyan , on GMTV getting toasted by Martin Lwwis and while she is the expected hopeless and floundering , she compounds this with  starting every sentence with 'So ' and I want to shoot her in the face.

[Tj hooker]

If only someone had told Matt Useless Hancock about that CCTV 

[Bjornebye]

4 minutes ago, Tj hooker said:

If only someone had told Matt Useless Hancock about that CCTV 

They genuinely think everyone else is thick as fuck. Cunts the lot of them, bring back the firing squad 

[lifetime fan]

Nish Kumar on Priti Patel: “She’s every Asian kids least favourite aunt”. 

[halewood pete]

3 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

They genuinely think everyone else is thick as fuck. Cunts the lot of them, bring back the firing squad 

 

[halewood pete]

[halewood pete]

[Bruce Spanner]

About three or four, maybe more, people have a video of the TV being rewound, him getting briefed, fixing the angles, practicing the shriek, telling him what a ‘goal’ is, repeatedly and then for extra measure making sure they were breaking covid protocol just to really stick it to the proles.

 

They have this, but not an ounce of integrity in going along with this pathetic charade.

[Mudface]

3 minutes ago, Bruce Spanner said:

About three or four, maybe more, people have a video of the TV being rewound, him getting briefed, fixing the angles, practicing the shriek, telling him what a ‘goal’ is, repeatedly and then for extra measure making sure they were breaking covid protocol just to really stick it to the proles.

 

They have this, but not an ounce of integrity in going along with this pathetic charade.

And it was still fucking shit, too. Not that the 'he got Brexit done, mate' brigade will give a fuck.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Gove and his wife are to divorce. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

3 minutes ago, Nelly-Torres said:

Gove and his wife are to divorce. 

Gove the dogshit slipping eye ball licking gecko is a twat. I wonder what truths are being kept hidden behind that story.

[Jack the Sipper]

From last week. Abbott took a fair bit of stick for this 'gossip'. Turns out she was just doing the maths.

[Bjornebye]

 

[Bjornebye]

They have asked for privacy at this time. Bit rich coming from that horrible bitch isn't it? (Vine not your daughter Kurtz) 

[halewood pete]

[deiseach]

 

[Sugar Ape]

Whenever I see that gif of him clapping it convinces me David Icke was correct about lizard people existing. 
 

 

[Sugar Ape]

[Bobby Hundreds]

3 minutes ago, Sugar Ape said:

Whenever I see that gif of him clapping it convinces me David Icke was correct about lizard people existing. 
 

 

If there are aliens among us infiltrating society he is absolutely one of them. He's the fucking Leclerc of the alien species.

[Section_31]

9 minutes ago, Sugar Ape said:

Whenever I see that gif of him clapping it convinces me David Icke was correct about lizard people existing. 
 

 

That's how you'd clap if you were at your kid's school play but had got there late because you'd had a skinfull after work and the Mrs was fuming with you.

[Sugar Ape]

Just now, Section_31 said:

That's how you'd clap if you were at your kid's school play but had got there late because you'd had a skinfull after work and the Mrs was fuming with you.

You’d told her that you finished work at 5pm and only had one pint when you’d been in the pub since lunchtime. 
 

And you’d still make a better go of it than Gove.