Dominic Raab: he remains Justice Secretary, despite the fact that the number of accusations against him has almost tripled.
Still he remains in post, though.
With five new accusations, the number of complaints against Dominic Raab – the Justice Secretary, has risen to eight.
He denies allegations of bullying and says he has behaved professionally throughout his time as a government minister.
The three complaints already under investigation related to his time as foreign secretary and Brexit secretary, as well as at the Ministry of Justice.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said the [five new] claims related to Mr Raab’s previous tenure as justice secretary.
Labour’s Keir Starmer has called for Raab’s status as a minister (and a Conservative MP?) to be suspended. That is, after all, what would happen to a Labour Party member.
Senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC is investigating all eight complaints against Raab. He will report to Rishi Sunak, who will make the final decision on whether Raab’s conduct breached the ministerial code and should be sacked.
But we know that Tory prime ministers may abuse this duty. Boris Johnson cleared Priti Patel, despite abundant evidence against her.
And Starmer has already said it was “a consequence of having a weak prime minister” that Raab continues to serve in government while complaints about his behaviour are investigated.
Let us hope that we are told all the information we need to make up our own minds, once judgement is passed.
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We’ve seen this tactic time and time again from the fakes who pretend there’s a huge rise of anti-Semitism in the UK – particularly focused on the Labour Party.
They take a line from an article or message, out of context, and present it as proof of a campaign of hatred.
So here’s Simon Maginn’s Twitter message: “Attention Jew-hate scammers: you try it on here, you will be confronted and you will lose, publicly. There are more and more of us all the time, we are informed, we are organised, and we are coming for you. Things have changed.”
Perhaps it’s not the most diplomatic message. But then, Mr Maginn has been accused, threatened and otherwise abused by these hate-filled manipulators for a long time, now. After a while, it tends to wear away one’s willingness to use neutral language.
But people who considered themselves to be addressed by his message – in other words, people who deliberately lie that anti-Semitism is more widespread in the UK’s left-wing politics than is actually the case – cut the message down and reported it to the police.
The words they reported?
“We are coming for you.”
Out of context. Misrepresentative. Misleading.
Mr Maginn duly received a call from a member of Sussex Police, labouring under the belief that he was dealing with an offence under the Malicious Communications Act, and was subjected to a “words of advice” sermon.
He has complained to Chief Constable Jo Shiner – and has publicised his complaint on – where else? – Twitter’
It is wholly inappropriate for police to take a side in a political campaign. Police have no legitimate interest in lawful political campaigning, and have no right to attempt to prevent it taking place.
I think you need to take this seriously. #ItWasAScam
All any Sussex Police officer had to do was read the tweet and understand what it meant. They could then explain to the complainants that, they might not like it, it might make them angry, but it was perfectly lawful, was not abusive or insulting or threatening, did not mention ‘Jews’ at any point, and was obviously a reference to a long-running political campaign on Twitter, #ItWasAScam, and not a ‘threat’ of an angry mob attacking Jews.
We see ‘evidence’ that is plainly wrenched out of context and wholly misleading, we see a histrionic over-reaction to a perfectly innocent event, we see a fraudulent accusation of antisemitism, we see an immediate and furious demand for action, and we see that action take place.
The scam, in miniature, over just a few hours.
They screamed loud enough, and they got heard. That’s how the scam has operated from the outset, and that’s how it’s continuing to operate.
Personally, I’d like to know what Sussex Police are doing about the people who contacted them to misdirect their attention to an innocent man with a lie.
No innocent people were threatened by Mr Maginn’s tweet, and those guilty of spreading vile lies about innocent people were only under threat of having their lies exposed.
For that, these liars called the police and wasted officers’ valuable time.
Has any action been taken to reprimand them?
.@CCJoShiner@sussex_police Having read the circumstances of this interview, it seems clear that police time was wasted on a matter that was not an offence.
What action has been taken to reprimand the people responsible for this attempt to pervert justice? https://t.co/51SJU9C6cd
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I wrote, a few days ago, that after Wayne Couzens was jailed for life for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, a culture of fear would settle on women in the UK.
I stated that “women will be left in greater fear of violence against them than ever – not because of men, as some in politics and the media are signalling, but because of the police.”
I continued: “You can bet the Met won’t do anything to change that. If you want proof, all you have to do is wait for the reports of the next crimes committed by officers of the Metropolitan Police.”
Well, we didn’t have to wait long, did we?
David Carrick, 46, of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, was arrested on Saturday over an alleged offence in St Albans on 4 September last year.
Mr Carrick, who is based within the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, was charged with rape by Hertfordshire Constabulary on Sunday.
I am legally bound to stress that the new allegations against David Carrick, a Met police officer from the same unit as Couzens, are only allegations at this time; he has been accused but any guilt or innocence must be established after a trial.
An initial court hearing was set to take place today (October 4).
Met Commissioner Cressida Dick has put out the usual circular that she releases when claims are made that harm her organisation:
“I am deeply concerned to hear the news today that an officer from the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command has been arrested and now charged with this serious offence.
“I fully recognise the public will be very concerned too. Criminal proceedings must now take their course so I am unable to comment any further at this stage.”
But we have to wonder how long she can stay in her post. The Met’s reputation has been dragged through the mud since she has been in charge and she has made no visible attempt to change its culture of abuse.
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Johnson v Starmer: in the PMQs battle-of-words, Starmer came out the clear winner against a prime minister that didn’t seem to know what question he was being asked to answer – let alone how to do it.
Prime ministerial failure Boris Johnson showed us all he had no answers about the ‘A’ level results scandal when he wandered off in the middle of PMQs and started accusing Keir Starmer of sympathising with the IRA – by proxy.
The Labour leader had asked a reasonable question – when did Johnson know that there was a problem with the algorithm used by Ofqual and the Department for Education to produce results, as exams hadn’t taken place?
Johnson’s response was not only an insult to everybody whose results were tainted by the system that upgraded private school pupils and marked down those at state schools – it was a direct attack on Starmer, with no reason.
He was clearly off-balance; he did not know what to say about the exams fiasco – so he groped for an attack on the Labour leader that he (or more likely his team) had clearly prepared in advance.
See for yourself:
Boris Johnson – This is a leader who supported an IRA condoning politician
Keir Starmer – The PM made a comment about the IRA… I want him to take that comment back
Starmer – I asked him to do the decent thing, but doing the decent thing & this PM don't go together.#PMQspic.twitter.com/4o8rSgIAaL
This is Johnson’s tactic, it seems: if he’s asked a tricky question, he’ll throw a dead cat on the table.
The barb about supporting the IRA had nothing to do with anything at all – particularly not Keir Starmer who, as he said, prosecuted many terrorists in his former role as a lawyer and as Director of Public Prosecutions.
It was simply a means of distracting attention away from the fact that his government failed ‘A’ level students across the country and he did not have an excuse.
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The gossips have been flaying the skins off the jungle drums since we learned a Conservative MP has been arrested for rape.
Much of the chatter has centred on the suspect’s anonymity, which seems to have provoked a lot of confected outrage.
This Writer isn’t outraged by it.
I’ve been to an awful lot of court cases and I’m satisfied that when matters get that far, it is right for the defendant to be named. It is the victim’s identity that must be protected.
Matters haven’t got that far.
And accusations of rape are extremely serious, with major reputational harm attached.
So, until such time as Her Majesty launches a criminal prosecution against the MP involved, I don’t mind him remaining nameless.
Once she does, his identity should be allowed no protection at all – most particularly because he is a member of Parliament. We should expect a higher standard of behaviour from our representatives.
The other talking-point is more worrying.
People have been complaining because the suspected MP has not been suspended by the Conservative Party, in the same way that Labour members and representatives were suspended the instant they were accused.
Doesn’t this say more about Labour than the Tories, though?
Whether the chatterers like it or not, a UK citizen – no matter what the accusation against them – is innocent until proven guilty.
The Tories – for the time being, at least – are right to protect their MP from the (possibly-unwarranted) attacks that suspension would attract.
Conversely, what about Labour’s decision not only to suspend members who have been accused of anti-Semitism, but for the party actually to go out of its way to inform the media (as it did in my own case)?
That’s right – it is Labour that is at fault.
Or am I mistaken?
I suppose it depends whether you think being accused of anti-Semitism – harbouring personal opinions of hatred against Jewish people simply because they are Jewish – is to be accused of a worse crime than rape – a direct attack that violates the victim’s body and often (personally, I would say always) traumatises them for the rest of their life.
Let me know your opinions – and be sure to include your reasons for holding them.
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Clueless again: Starmer’s hypocrisy in sacking one shadow minister but not another, for the same false accusation, shows his hypocrisy – and also confirms to all of us that he was using anti-Semitism as an excuse to sack Rebecca Long-Bailey.
This is a bit of a tangled web.
Keir Starmer has been criticised for failing to take action against his shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, Steve Reed, over two tweets which have been said to be anti-Semitic.
One suggested that property developer and former porn baron Richard Desmond, who is Jewish (who knew?) is “the puppet master for the entire Tory cabinet”.
The other was a retweet of an article referring to an “Israeli billionaire” influencing Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.
Neither of these tweets are anti-Semitic in any way.
One presumes those making that suggestion about the first are referring to the anti-Semitic trope of Jewish conspiracies running the world – but there’s no implication that Desmond is representing the entire Jewish ethnicity in his behaviour; it doesn’t even mention his ethnicity.
As for the other – try replacing “Israeli” with, I don’t know… “Australian”. Would it be racist against Australians to say that one of them was influencing Jenrick? Of course not. And an Israeli isn’t necessarily Jewish so, again, anti-Semitism cannot be rightl applied.
However:
It is only a matter of days since Starmer sacked now-former shadow Education Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey under the pretext that she had retweeted a link to an interview with actor Maxine Peake containing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
It didn’t – the claim has subsequently been proved accurate – but the damage was done and RLB is out.
The issue with Starmer is hypocrisy. Neither of his shadow ministers did anything anti-Semitic, both were accused, but only one lost their job.
The issue has made the Labour leader’s position even less credible than it was before; this guy just doesn’t have a clue, and has turned Labour’s position on racism into nonsense.
He has to go. It’s only a matter of time until he does.
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The grounds on which the Labour Party wants to accuse people of anti-Semitism are getting more and more shaky.
In this case, one of the accusations against Cllr Karen Sudan is that she has blocked Labour Against Anti-Semitism on Twitter.
This is not an anti-Semitic act. Indeed, as LAAS is represented by extremely dodgy characters, Cllr Sudan should be praised for putting distance between herself and that group. It is the Labour Party that should be ashamed for supporting it.
But then, Labour does have its blinkers on when choosing its allies. It kowtows to the Jewish Labour Movement, Labour Friends of Israel and other right-wing, pro-Likud Israel, anti-Palestinian organisations (despite its claim that all peoples should have the right to self-determination) and rejects Jewish Voice for Labour, Jewdas and the Jewish Socialists Group.
The second accusation refers to a tweet from August 2018 in which she accuses the mainstream media of being ‘too busy making up and/or exaggerating stories about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party’ to raise an outcry over other forms of racism.
This was just after local elections in which there was a huge increase in media reports claiming anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. This is now common knowledge as research has been carried out and shown it to be true.
Meanwhile the Windrush Scandal had taken place, and August 2018 was the month Boris Johnson published his shockingly racist remarks about burqa-wearing women looking like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”. Those are just two high-profile examples. I feel sure Cllr Sudan was accurate in her criticism.
The final charge against her relates to a tweet from January, opposing the so-called “Ten Commandments” by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
She was right to do so and then-leadership candidates including Keir Starmer were wrong to sign up to those pledges – several of which involve commitments to break the law, if This Writer’s memory is correct.
Now consider this:
Because of recent changes, the only way Cllr Sudan could defend herself publicly against these claims was to quit the party.
She explains:
“If I was a member of the Labour Party, I would have to keep quiet about that – and if I spoke about it to anybody I would be suspended.
“They would know I was under investigation but they wouldn’t know why and I wouldn’t be able to discuss it and I wouldn’t be able to defend myself.
“The only way I could do that and stop the gossip and the maligning stuff that would be around it was to resign from the party and put it out there so that people can see how stupid and ridiculous it is.
Of course, quitting the party means the accusations won’t be prosecuted through its disputes/disciplinary system – but it also means she has been forced to quit the party, possibly for political reasons.
The Labour leader of Crawley Borough Council – one of the authorities on which Cllr Sudan sits – denied any suggestion that the accusation against his former colleague came from anybody in the council’s Labour group.
He said it seemed likely that “someone’s been nationally trawling through Labour accounts trying to find any historical Tweets which may well constitute anti-Semitism”.
But his belief that it was somebody at Labour’s London HQ is less believable. It has been suggested that LAAS has been doing exactly what he described – that’s in the leaked Labour report on anti-Semitism investigations.
Perhaps this indicates the veracity of that claim?
And it would certainly tie in with the fact that one of the disputed tweets is a reference to LAAS.
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Priti Patel: smug as ever – perhaps because she’s got Boris Johnson making sure she’ll remain as Home Secretary no matter what is said against her.
Civil servants are now lining up to condemn Home Secretary Priti Patel, while she has support from liars like Boris Johnson and other former – disgraced – ministers like Liam Fox.
A civil servant writing in The Guardian tells us: “Civil servants are supposed to silently get on with it while ministers take the flak… But this very British convention of public life… is now being shredded by an emboldened administration still flexing its muscular majority.
“More colleagues are now coming forward with further allegations against Patel during her time as an employment minister in 2015. That’s in addition to claims that she, as international development secretary, openly called her staff “fucking useless”.
“So it might not be a stretch to say that this feels like like a sort of #MeToo moment for the civil service. Those who, like me, have been around government for several years reckon more allegations are on the way. There may be blood.”
But the writer says it probably won’t be Ms Patel’s.
Yes, there will be a Cabinet Office investigation – but the minister for the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove, has already given her his support.
Not only that: Boris Johnson told MPs he was “sticking by” Ms Patel during Prime Minister’s Questions, saying she was “delivering change, putting police out on the street, cutting crime, and delivering a new immigration system”. He is a known liar, of course.
Oh, and how about this endorsement?
Distinct feel of @patel4witham critics hunting as a hungry pack. Opportunistic coalition of the faceless and the useless. Great to see the Prime Minister @BorisJohnson sticking by her.
— Dr Liam Fox MP #LiamFoxForWTO (@LiamFox) March 4, 2020
Liam Fox was, if I recall correctly, the very first member of the Conservative government from 2010 onwards who was forced to resign in disgrace.
That is the kind of support she is getting.
Ms Patel may stay on as Home Secretary – let’s face it, it seems clear that Johnson is rigging any investigation in her favour – but she’ll never live down the scandal.
Civil servants don’t make this kind of fuss about nothing.
And she has already been forced to resign from a previous Cabinet job after she tried to carry out her own foreign policy, independent of even the Tory government’s.
As far as This Writer is concerned, she is poison. If she stays, she’ll become a symbol of Tory government bullying, lies and corruption.
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Priti Patel and Boris Johnson: allies against the civil service?
The Cabinet Office has launched an inquiry into whether Priti Patel has breached the ministerial code by bullying civil servants under her.
But MPs including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are demanding an independent inquisition as more evidence against her comes to light.
For example, Sir Philip Rutnam’s claim that he was offered a “financial settlement” to keep him from speaking out about the “vicious and orchestrated” plot against him may be validated by claims that another civil servant was driven to a suicide attempt by Ms Patel’s behaviour towards her at the Department for Work and Pensions.
The person involved apparently was shouted at, told to get lost and dismissed from her job in the minister’s private office because Ms Patel “doesn’t like your face”, according to legal correspondence seen by the BBC. She took an overdose of prescription medicines and had to be taken home by her husband, where she attempted to kill herself, the legal correspondence said.
The victim later brought a complaint for unfair dismissal, harassment, victimisation and discrimination, but the DWP hushed it up with a £25,000 settlement without admitting liability.
Worse than this is the claim that Boris Johnson himself has given support to ministers who wish to smear top civil servants.
Dave Penman, head of the senior civil servants union, the FDA, said Johnson and his closest aides have “ripped up the rule book” that ensured the ministers do not attack civil servants.
The allegation means it would be impossible to trust the finding of a Cabinet Office inquiry which could be influenced by Johnson.
Meanwhile the pressure is building against Ms Patel, with calls increasing for her to be suspended as a minister while her behaviour is investigated.
This is a power struggle at the heart of government.
Or so it seems to This Writer.
On one side, we have a civil service staffed by experts on government who know that politics is “the art of the possible” and are bound to advise MPs on how much of their plans are both possible and advisable.
On the other: a rabble of hard-right Tory authoritarians whose belief that their orders should be obeyed – no matter how insane – has been compared with fascism.
You’d better pray that the side of reason wins.
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Pauline Hammerton, a long-term Labour activist from Hulme, in Manchester, had been expelled on February 4 under one of the fast-track processes I described in my article.
It seems she had been unaware that the party had been planning to expel her, and was left distraught by the decision.
It is believed that the shock triggered a haemorrhage that killed her.
Those who knew Ms Hammerton (I did not) have described her in glowing terms.
Here‘s The Critique Archives: “I had met Pauline a few times at demos and other meetings, and so, although I did not know her well, her death has come as a shock, to me personally, and to other activists across the north-west. Her dedication to justice was tremendous, and the callous mistreatment she received from a party that she had given so much to must have been the bitterest blow imaginable.”
And this is from Tony Greenstein’s blog: “A cursory look at Pauline Hammerton’s Facebook page shows that she was anything but a racist. She was a decent, kind, concerned person who hated all kinds of oppression. Pauline was Chair of Manchester Socialist Health Association… Pauline was the kind of person who should be welcomed and respected.”
Mr Greenstein has also been expelled from the Labour Party on trumped-up charges of anti-Semitism, as has This Writer.
I can’t speak for him, but I have had more than a quarter of a century’s experience as a reporter, and know the kind of backstabbing that can take place.
But not everybody is made of such stern stuff. False allegations alone can cause a huge amount of stress, especially on people whose health is not the best – and tangible harm as a result of such lies, like expulsion from a political party to which one has devoted a large amount of one’s life, can end a life. That is what we have seen.
But we cannot expect the Labour Party to own up and apologise. Nor can we expect any of Ms Hammerton’s false accusers to take anything like the honourable course of action.
They’ll be covering their tracks. If you don’t believe me, consider The Sun and the way that publication rushed to delete a story attacking the late TV presenter Caroline Flack after her apparent suicide (again on February 15).
Ms Flack had been under huge pressure after being removed as the host of a piece of ITV fluff called Love Island amid allegations that she had assaulted her boyfriend.
She had been due to go on trial in March. She had called the period after her arrest and departure from the TV show “the worst time of my life” and had since admitted that she was still having a “really rough time”.
But that didn’t stop content providers like The Sun from hounding her. The headline on the deleted story was “Brutal Caroline Flack Valentine’s Day card mocks troubled star with ‘I’ll f*** lamp you’ message”.
I don’t personally know what happened between Ms Flack and her significant other and I’m not the kind of person to rush to judgement, but I’m sure many people seeing that headline would have believed that it depicted her as a woman of extreme violence and that this was the impression it was seeking to give.
Put yourself in the position of a woman at the sharp end of messages like that – and who had been subjected to a constant stream of them for many months.
And now at least one candidate to be leader of the Labour Party (remember Labour?) is threatening to open up a new set of floodgates for false accusations, by supporting a call to expel members who express transphobic views.
And just who would decide whether these views were transphobic or not? The same kind of people who decided that simply being accused of anti-Semitism meant members had to be guilty of it?
Labour has a piss-poor record on disciplinary matters and this will make it much, much worse.
Yes, I know that there is a huge argument raging between the so-called TERFs (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists) and people who, as I understand it, are demanding a widening of the definition of transsexual people.
Neither side seems to have much to recommend it. I fell foul of some particularly odious people who claimed to be representative of the trans community on (again) February 15; they seemed to be just as bigoted and intolerant as those they claimed to be defending against.
And Rebecca Long-Bailey is taking their side.
Wouldn’t it be better to tell both gangs to pipe down, and follow a policy that ensures the maximum protection for everyone?
Beastrabban has written an extremely informative piece on this matter, which is not simple and it is vulnerable to takeover by agents of malice and hate.
Coming back to the fact that people are dying over false anti-Semitism allegations, I can say that I wish to raise this when my own case against the Labour Party comes to court on May 26.
It’s a long time to wait, because justice is a slow process, and I’m sure that Labour will try to obstruct my case as much as possible (those who were at the hearing earlier this month will know what I mean).
But it’s the best I can offer. What will you do?
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