Re: The Politics Thread 3.0
Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 12:40 pm
Preezy wrote:She shouldn't be an MP full stop.
I agree but it's still not possible to recall an MP is it?
Preezy wrote:She shouldn't be an MP full stop.
captain red dog wrote:Preezy wrote:She shouldn't be an MP full stop.
I agree but it's still not possible to recall an MP is it?
Preezy wrote:captain red dog wrote:Preezy wrote:She shouldn't be an MP full stop.
I agree but it's still not possible to recall an MP is it?
We actually can now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recall_of_MPs_Act_2015
Hyperion wrote:Is that not a massive overreaction?
Hyperion wrote:Parliament's full of banana splits
Boris Johnson is being actively undermined by officials within his own department over Brexit negotiations, it can be revealed.
Sky News has learnt that Foreign Office officials told Ireland's Government "not to listen to whatever he had to say" ahead of Mr Johnson's visit to Dublin a few weeks ago.
Extraordinarily, officials in Whitehall were very open with their counterparts in the Irish capital to "ignore the public utterances" of Britain's chief diplomat.
Mr Johnson visited Dublin on 17 November to meet with Simon Coveney, Ireland's foreign minister and now also deputy prime minister, for Brexit discussions ahead of next month's critical European Council summit in Brussels.
The two publicly disagreed at a press conference over when Irish border issues should be settled, while Mr Johnson claimed he was unaware of Ireland's call for a transition period lasting four to five years.
Damian Green’s position has been boosted after David Davis indicated that he may resign if the first secretary of state was forced to quit as a result of the Cabinet Office investigation into inappropriate behaviour.
The Brexit secretary believes his cabinet colleague is the victim of a police vendetta and has made it clear to Theresa that he would be willing to leave the government if he felt Green had been unfairly treated.
The threat emerged only hours after a former Metropolitan police detective came forward with fresh claims implying that Green himself had been viewing pornography found on his workplace computer when police raided his Commons office in November 2008.
Green was a shadow Home Office minister at the time and was under investigation because he had received a series of sensitive Home Office leaks. He denies viewing pornography on his parliamentary computer.
At the time, the Conservatives were fighting some of the Labour government’s law and order measures on libertarian grounds and Davis, who had resigned as shadow home secretary earlier in 2008 to trigger a byelection opposing Labour’s plans for pre-charge detention, was a strong backer of Green’s work.
A friend of Davis’s was quoted in the Evening Standard on Friday, saying Davis had “put his cloak” around Green and would find it difficult to stay in his job if Green was forced out now because of what happened in 2008.
Another source close to Davis said: “It is right that allegations of misconduct towards individuals are properly investigated, but police officers have a duty of confidentiality which should be upheld.”
Green is the subject of a Cabinet Office inquiry by its head of propriety and ethics, Sue Gray. It began following allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a young Conservative activist, Kate Maltby.
Since then, two former police officers have come forward and said there was evidence of pornography on Green’s Commons computer. The first was the former assistant commissioner Bob Quick; the second, former detective Neil Lewis, who went public for the first time on Friday.
Lewis said the internet history on the device seized in 2008 showed pornography had been viewed extensively because it contained thousands of thumbnail images of legal pornography.
In his first broadcast interview about the investigation, Lewis was asked by the BBC how he could be sure it was Green who accessed the images. He replied: “The computer was in Mr Green’s office, on his desk, logged in, his account, his name.
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“In between browsing pornography, he was sending emails from his account, his personal account, reading documents ... it was ridiculous to suggest anybody else could have done it.”
Lewis said he was shocked by what he found: “The shocking thing as I was viewing it, I noticed a lot of pornography: thumbnails, which indicated web browsing. There was a lot of them. I was surprised to see that on a parliament computer. I had to take a step back because I wasn’t expecting that.”
He said the images were not extreme, as earlier reports claimed, and featured no images of children or sexual abuse.
Green denied Lewis’s claims. Speaking to reporters he said: “I’ve said that I’m not commenting any further while the investigation is going on. I’ve maintained all along, I still maintain, it is the truth that I didn’t download or look at pornography on my computer. But obviously while the investigation is going on I can’t say any more at the moment.”
Lewis now faces a Scotland Yard investigation into his decision to go public. The Met responded to his intervention by saying: “Confidential information gathered during a police inquiry should not be made public.”
A spokesperson said the case would be examined by the directorate of professional standards.
Lewis said he was shocked by what he found: “The shocking thing as I was viewing it, I noticed a lot of pornography: thumbnails, which indicated web browsing. There was a lot of them. I was surprised to see that on a parliament computer. I had to take a step back because I wasn’t expecting that."
andretmzt wrote:Perfect. Off you go then David. Browsing porn on your home computer is fine. Doing it on an office computer as someone in public office should be a sackable offence just as it is in the Civil Service.
BBC News wrote:Dylan Jones told the BBC Mr Corbyn's photo shoot was "as difficult as shooting any Hollywood celebrity".
Mr Jones claimed that despite the Labour leader's "rock star persona" he was "underwhelming" in person.
The editor faced a backlash on Twitter with Corbyn supporters and others accusing him of political bias and carrying out a "hatchet job".
Mr Jones has written in the past about his support for the Conservatives and authored "Cameron on Cameron" - a series of interviews with the former Tory leader before he became PM in 2010.
Mr Corbyn's former spokesman Matt Zarb-Cousin said Mr Jones had not been in the room for the interview and said the editor's politics were "well known".
"It's slightly puzzling that the editor of GQ would put Jeremy Corbyn on the cover of his magazine looking like a prime minister in waiting, only to go on the Today programme and say the complete opposite," he said.
Mr Corbyn joins David Cameron and Boris Johnson on the list of politicians to feature on the cover of men's "fashion and style" magazine GQ - in his case under the headline: "Jeremy Corbyn's hostile takeover".
'Family photograph'
According to Mr Jones the Labour leader was "adamant" he would wear a Marks and Spencer suit for the photo shoot. [WHAT A BASTARD!]
In the interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Jones said: "The actual shoot itself was quite tortuous. It was as difficult as shooting any Hollywood celebrity.
"We've shot many politicians for our cover ... but never have we encountered such a ring. Obviously [Labour director of communications] Seumas Milne and his crew are very particular gate-keepers.
"They didn't really seem to understand the process at all, didn't understand (a) that he would have to be photographed in the first place (b) that he would need to be presentable or that he couldn't just turn up in his anorak.
"When he actually turned up for the shoot it was almost like he was being pushed around like a grandpa for the family Christmas photograph. He wasn't particularly aware of what was going on. But we're very pleased with what we ended up with."
He also said Mr Corbyn had turned down an interview with Tony Blair's former communications chief Alastair Campbell.
Mr Campbell, who is a regular writer for the magazine has criticised Mr Corbyn in the past - warning the party not to risk "driving itself off a cliff" by electing him leader in 2015. Last year he had a memorable clash on BBC Question Time with shadow chancellor John McDonnell over the future of the party.
Asked whether he had fallen out with Mr Corbyn's team, Mr Jones said: "We haven't fallen out with anyone, we are just describing the process of what we went through to get the cover, which I found very intriguing."
The interview, a short version of which appears on the GQ website, includes Mr Corbyn rejecting claims that he had avoided saying outright that he supported remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum campaign.
He also said he would be happy to meet US President Donald Trump and would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin, if he became prime minister.