Tag Archives: apology

Tory chairman apologises to civil service for ‘activist blob’ email. Why not Braverman?

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Greg Hands: I’d forgotten I had this duff graphic that approximates his image. I suits what he’s done here, though.

Suella Braverman said she wouldn’t apologise to civil servants for saying they blocked her bid to stop Channel migrants coming to the UK in an email to Tory supporters – and she hasn’t.

It was left to party chairman Greg Hands to do it instead.

The email, in Braverman’s name, sent by Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) to party members, said the following:

“We tried to stop the small boats crossings without changing our laws.

“But an activist blob of left wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party blocked us.”

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA Union, which represents civil servants, stated in a letter to prime minister Rishi Sunak that it was “a direct attack on the integrity and impartiality of the thousands of civil servants who loyally serve the home secretary, doing some of the most complex and difficult work in government”.

Penman also said Braverman may have broken the ministerial code, which says ministers must “uphold the impartiality of the civil service”.

Braverman disowned the email, despite the fact that it went out under her name.

She told Robert Peston: “I didn’t write that email, I didn’t see it and it was an error that it was sent out in my name.”

Nevertheless, her name was attached to it and for that reason alone, she had an apology to make. She should have been paying attention to what was being said in her name. She didn’t.

Instead, we hear that the head of the civil service, Simon Case, has written to the PCS union to say that Hands has apologised for the “error”:

“He assured me that he has already taken action to change procedures in CCHQ to make sure that there is not a repeat of this incident,” the head of the civil service said.

Hands has also “provided his assurance that attacks on the civil service are not part of any standard CCHQ lines”, Case added.

It’s not enough, is it? It’s just a proxy apology from a civil servant to a civil service union. Where’s the full and frank apology and explanation from the Home Secretary?

Source: Simon Case: Conservative Party chair has apologised for ‘activist civil servants’ email

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Channel migrants: Braverman won’t apologise for comment on ‘activist blob’ of ‘left-wing’ civil servants

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Suella Braverman doesn’t think before broadcasting: she’s pictured in a committee where she claimed there were legal routes for refugees to enter the UK. Challenged on it, she couldn’t name even one.

Once again, for Tories, “sorry” seems to be the hardest word.

An email in Suella Braverman’s name, sent by Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) to party members, said the following:

“We tried to stop the small boats crossings without changing our laws.

“But an activist blob of left wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party blocked us.”

See for yourself. I’m using an image posted by a journalist on Twitter because it clearly shows Braverman’s name:

The message has been savaged by Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA Union, which represents civil servants.

He stated in a letter to prime minister Rishi Sunak that it was “a direct attack on the integrity and impartiality of the thousands of civil servants who loyally serve the home secretary, doing some of the most complex and difficult work in government”.

Penman also said Braverman may have broken the ministerial code, which says ministers must “uphold the impartiality of the civil service”. Here’s the relevant part:

Braverman was challenged over this scandal by Robert Peston on his ITV show – and denied having anything to do with the email. Take note of Clare Hepworth’s comment prefacing the video below:

But it was sent out in Braverman’s name. From This Writer’s point of view, it is inconceivable that any government minister – or anyone at all – would allow a message to be sent out (in this case to many people at once) without having seen it or approved its contents.

So I think Ms Hepworth may be right that we may discover something different, some time in the future.

Mr Penman had already stated that, whether or not Braverman had approved the message that went out in her name, she should apologise for it:

As you have seen in the Peston video, above, Braverman has not apologised.

I wonder what the other members of the “activist blob” – the “left wing” lawyers and the Labour Party – have to say about the way they were mentioned. I would certainly expect Keir Starmer to object at Labour being described as “left wing”.

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Sunak refuses to apologise for turmoil caused by Truss

Rishi Sunak has refused to apologise for the economic turmoil Liz Truss’s government caused.

Speaking in Bali at the G20 summit, refused to apologise six times for the decisions his forerunner made, which caused severe financial turbulence that continues at the time of writing.

But he did acknowledge that “mistakes were made,” and said: “What I want to do now is fix them.”

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Steve Baker calls for Guru-Murthy sacking after accepting apology. What a c… (STRONG LANGUAGE)

Steve Baker: what a- well, I think the description is now best described as rhyming slang for his Tory colleague Jeremy Hunt.

Tory MP Steve Baker has said he hopes Channel 4 sacks journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy after telling him he “appreciates” an apology for being called something very rude, live on air.

The incident occurred after what Guru-Murthy called a “very robust” interview on events in Westminster yesterday.

Suella Braverman resigned as home secretary, chief whip Wendy Morton and her deputy Craig Whittaker reportedly threatened to quit, and it was alleged that Tory MPs were bullied into supporting the government in a vote on fracking that was seen as a mark of confidence in Liz Truss’s government.

After the interview concluded, this happened:

Obviously it shouldn’t have but it did – and Guru-Murthy later reported in a tweet that he had “reached out” to Baker to apologise.

Baker then accepted the apology: “I appreciate you apologising. Thank you,” he wrote.

But Baker then told John Pienaar on Times Radio that he hoped Channel 4 would sack Guru-Murthy.

He said: “If it’s in breach of his code of conduct, I do hope they sack him – it would be a service to the public.”

Accepting an apology for a transgression and then demanding further action over it is exactly the behaviour of the kind of person Guru-Murthy had described, in his description of the MP.

So there it is. Steve Baker – what a … “Jeremy Hunt”.

Source: Krishnan Guru-Murthy apologises for calling Steve Baker ‘a c***’ during livestream | The Independent

Nadhim Zahawi apologises for chaos after Tory fiscal event

It took him a while but he got to it in the end.

Nadhim Zahawi, challenged to apologise for the economic chaos his Conservative colleagues Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss caused with their cack-handed ‘fiscal event’, tried everything he could to avoid saying a simple word: “Sorry.”

He failed.

He tried to say that prime minister Liz Truss had retracted her plan to end the top, 45p, tax rate.

He tried to say – to hilarity from the BBC Question Time audience – that Vladimir Putin would benefit from the UK being divided (as if that was any kind of moral reason to support a wrong decision by his bosses).

But in the end, he had to accept the inevitable:

It isn’t an apology from Truss or Kwarteng.

But is that yet to come?

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Apology for #KeirStarmer over #JimmySavile slur? Where’s HIS apology to #JeremyCorbyn?

Johnson and Starmer: Johnson’s jibe about Jimmy Savile was wrong – but Starmer would be a hypocrite to demand an apology while he continues to make false accusations against Jeremy Corbyn.

Boris Johnson was under pressure today to apologise to Keir Starmer for claiming that the Labour leader refused to prosecute child abuser Jimmy Savile when he was Director of Public Prosecutions.

It would be absolutely right for Johnson to do so; there is no evidence that Starmer had anything to do with that wrong decision, as those who were present at the time acknowledge:

However, some are saying it is poetic justice that Starmer is getting some of his own medicine after he has spent more than a year lying about former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

They say – rightly, in This Writer’s opinion – that Starmer should only receive any apology from Johnson after he has apologised for the years of false accusations of anti-Semitism and support for terrorism that have been wrongly heaped on Mr Corbyn by himself and others within Labour.

It would be hypocrisy for him – and his supporters – to demand amends for an offence that they themselves merrily continue to commit against someone else.

Boris Johnson isn’t the only Tory in trouble for breaking the rules

Daniel Kawczynski: this was his justification for bullying his staff.

Here’s Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham:

Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski is facing a one-day suspension from the Commons after being found to have broken the rules over an apology he gave for bullying parliamentary staff.

So, not only was he found guilty of bullying his own staff – he has now been found guilty of breaking the rules for apologising about it!

The recommendation has been made by the Commons Standards Committee and follows comments the MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham made before he said sorry last June.

The committee ruled that interviews he gave on local radio and with a newspaper before the required apology in the Commons chamber meant he had failed to comply, as the apology was not “unequivocal”.

In its report, the committee said: “Although he says he was sincere by the time he made the apology to the House, he had that morning effectively undermined the sincerity of that apology by broadcasting the fact that he was making it because he was required to do so and he disagreed with the way the case had been conducted.

I wonder if he expected the government to change the rules for him, as it tried to do for his former North Shropshire colleague, Owen Paterson?

Read the full story here: Tory MP facing suspension for breaking rules over apology for bullying parliamentary staff

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After #BorisJohnson apologised over #DowningStreetParties, a Tory party political broadcast. Brave! Here’s the reason

Boris Johnson: after the abjectly-insincere apology for attending a possibly law-breaking event, putting out a party political broadcast claiming the Tories are the party of law and order is the equivalent of making an obscene gesture to the whole of the UK.

Somebody in the Conservative Party must be a comedian.

What other reason could there be for scheduling a party political broadcast – discussing law and order – on the day Boris Johnson apologised to the UK for attending a potentially lawbreaking, lockdown-busting party?

That is what has happened.

He made the apology just after midday on January 12 and the PPB went out at 6.25pm.

No, I don’t have video of it. Sometimes one has to draw the line.

Instead, I’ll give you just a few reactions:

Oh wait! I have found video that I think you should see! Here it is:

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Dead man talking: are the #DowningStreetParties over for #BorisJohnson? [VIDEO]

Boris Johnson finally shambled out to the Dispatch Box and attempted to apologise for attending the lawbreaking, lockdown-busting Downing Street party on May 20, 2020, during Prime Minister’s Questions.

He must have realised that he would not be able to avoid answering questions about it any more.

Before watching the clip, remind yourself of the context:

Bear that in mind when you watch Johnson put on his naughty-boy face and come out with this:

So he thought the “bring your own booze” party was a “work event”, did he? How stupid does he think we are, to believe that tripe?

Did he think that, even though he must have received the emailed invitation (it’s technically the garden of his home; nothing happens there without his knowledge)?

And take a look at this, which shows just how desperate the Tory justifications are becoming:

I’m not convinced.

Neither were Keir Starmer, Ian Blackford, Karl Turner, Chris Bryant, Ed Davey or many, many other Opposition MPs. Here’s a montage of their comments:

Johnson did answer these questions – but not with anything that was worth hearing. I’ll put clips of the questions with answers up on my YouTube channel (hint: please subscribe).

Conservative MPs tried to fill PMQs with questions about anything else at all, in a vain attempt to distract from the sheer cringing awfulness of what their leader had admitted.

And then Safeguarding minister Rachael Maclean tried to justify it on the BBC’s Politics Live. Her attempted evasions were so bad they may actually qualify as comedy. See for yourself:

And it wasn’t enough, I hear.

Apparently the number of letters winging their way to the chair of the Conservative Party’s backbench 1922 committee is fast approaching the 54 necessary to trigger a leadership challenge:

Oh, and apparently there was a meeting of the 1922 committee the evening after PMQs…

So, politically speaking, is Johnson a dead man walking? We should know by the weekend.

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Two-faced #DavidLammy APOLOGISES for nominating #JeremyCorbyn as #Labour leader. Voters will flee

Janus Lammy: January is named after the famous two-faced god, but now it’s been suggested that the month should be renamed Lammy, after the Labour MP.

This Site has praised David Lammy in the past – particularly over his defence of the Windrush generation of UK citizens the Tories tried to deny and deport.

But his latest outburst deserves no support at all. It shows that he is a two-faced fairweather friend who says only what he thinks will help him. We already have a Boris Johnson for that kind of behaviour – and it belongs in the Tory Party, not Labour.

And it shows that we can’t trust any of his previous comments – including those on Windrush.

Voters in Tottenham, who turned out in support of Lammy more when Mr Corbyn was Labour leader than at any other time, will be taking careful note.

And commenters have been quick to point out the flaws in Lammy’s behaviour:

I’ve mentioned the possibility that the voters of Tottenham will turn their collective back on Lammy, now he has revealed himself to be untrustworthy. It doesn’t stop there:

I hope he gets exactly what he deserves from the public, which is nothing – ever again.

I certainly hope his decision to betray Jeremy Corbyn in such an underhand way harms Labour’s electoral chances with Starmer as party leader.

And I absolutely hope that it helps prod the wider party membership to wake up and demand representatives who stand for genuine Labour Party values as laid out by the party’s founders, rather than for their own selfishness.

What can I say? I’m an optimist.

I know there are figures in the mass media that will continue to provide Lammy with a platform, while – I believe the word is “cancelling” – his critics. Consider The Guardian and the way it has refused to allow any mention of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s opposition of Israeli apartheid in order to present him as a wholly praiseworthy figure.

(Strange that opposition to apartheid is now frowned upon by the UK media that tries so hard to present itself as reasonable.)

The responsibility, as it has always been, is personal.

It is up to all of us to remember that Lammy is not worth our time, and to switch him off or block him out. He has nothing to say that anyone could possibly want to hear.

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