Tag Archives: hands

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

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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Tory ministers have been burning public money on expensive luxuries, says Labour

Rich kid Rishi Sunak: if he wants to stay in five-star hotels, why not put some of his own fortune into it, rather than spending on himself the public cash he keeps telling us is in such short supply.

It’s bad enough when the Tories hire private planes at huge expense to visit foreign countries – often for climate crisis summit meetings – but this shows it’s habitual.

And Tory protests that the spending is all on the record do not defend their position.

Here it is:

Labour is launching a campaign accusing government ministers and officials of spending taxpayer-funded credit cards on luxury travel and hotels, claiming they are using public money “like a cash machine”.

It states that [Rishi] Sunak stayed in the five-star Hotel Danieli in Venice when attending the G20 meeting of finance ministers in July 2021 as chancellor, with more than £4,500 spent on accommodation for Sunak and his aides.

[Greg] Hands is also singled out for staying for two nights in the £318 per night five-star Grand Hotel Petersberg in Koenigswinter, Germany, in order to attend a private gathering of European policymakers. Alok Sharma is listed as staying in a series of five-star hotels in Berlin, Saigon, Tianjin and twice in Seoul – at costs of up to £255 per night – during the 66 trips he made as Cop26 president. Labour said it cost at least £220,817 for his travel and hotels.

Under Sunak, the Treasury also hired a £3,600 chauffeur service for ministers and officials visiting Cop26 in November 2021. The same chauffeur service was hired by Nadhim Zahawi’s department for £1,040 during his own trip to Cop26.

Former minister Nigel Adams is named as spending £9,289 on a visit to Japan in July 2022 in order to “confirm the UK’s commitment to the Osaka Expo”, which takes place in 2025. Adams announced he was leaving the government five and a half weeks after the trip. Labour said a late request for an official from the Department for International Trade to accompany him added an extra £8,110 flight to the costs of the trip.

In 2012, the public accounts committee (PAC) criticised the use of five-star hotels and expensive transport costs.

Yes.

This is your money the Tories are spending on themselves – at a time when living costs are tight for you.

Instead of tightening their own belts and sharing your ordeal, they are rubbing your nose in it.

Because these entitled, over-privileged rich kids think they deserve it just for existing – and that you don’t, for the same reason.

Source: Tory ministers accused of five-star lifestyle and using public money ‘like a cash machine’ | Conservatives | The Guardian


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Tory Hoare branded a ‘coward’ for plan to abstain on Bill that threatens peace in Northern Ireland

Should it say or should it go? “Northern Ireland voted to stay in the European Union, and the Good Friday Agreement demands that its border with the Republic of Ireland be kept open. Brexit would make that impossible without the conditions in the EU Withdrawal Agreement that provide the province with a special status. But the Internal Market Bill illegally overwrites those conditions.” Isn’t Boris Johnson pushing NI towards re-integration with the Republic?

The Conservative chairman of the Commons Northern Ireland select committee is currently taking a drubbing on Twitter after he announced he will abstain on the Third Reading of the Internal Market Bill that threatens the peace there, rather than opposing it outright.

Simon Hoare tweeted that information from the US Congress that its members would not permit any free trade agreements with the United Kingdom. He seemed to believe that this was justification for him to abstain, rather than oppose the Bill that breaks international law by overruling the EU Withdrawal Agreement on trade borders around NI.

Northern Ireland voted to stay in the European Union, and the Good Friday Agreement demands that its border with the Republic of Ireland be kept open. Brexit would make that impossible without the conditions in the EU Withdrawal Agreement that provide the province with a special status. But the Internal Market Bill illegally overwrites those conditions.

In abstaining on the Bill, Hoare is effectively saying that he does not want to express an opinion on it – even though he knows it will be harmful to peace in Northern Ireland, and to the Union. It is the position of a coward who is afraid to take a stand when his bosses do the wrong thing.

Even if he really didn’t know that, he is being told it in no uncertain terms:

If he does abstain, Spineless Simon should be ashamed to call himself a human being.

I wonder how many Conservatives will follow his example – doing just enough to salve their miniscule consciences without actually stopping the Bill?

Abstention means allowing Boris Johnson to break international law.

And it means an end to peace in Northern Ireland.

When violence breaks out again, after Johnson does whatever he’s planning to do to the Northern Ireland border, Simon Hoare and all other Tory abstainers will be responsible.

But then we know from past experience that Tories are perfectly comfortable to sit in Parliament with blood dripping from their hands.

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The idiocy of Robert Jenrick – he’s a bigger danger to the public than the young people he’s attacking

Robert ‘bent as a nine-bob note’ Jenrick: He broke housing rules to save his mate Richard Desmond £50 million; he broke lockdown rules to visit his spare homes and see his family; he voted against safety procedures for tower blocks in the wake of the Grenfell Tragedy; but he thinks young people should be blamed for increased Covid-19 infections and wants them to wash their hands.

Robert Jenrick, who is still the Conservative housing secretary despite a strong of corrupt misuses of the role, appeared on the TV news programmes today (September 8) to patronise the public about Covid-19 safety.

Reading from a script set out by Matt Hancock yesterday, he tried to claim that young people need to stick to the Tory governments rules for not spreading the virus. There is still no evidence to show that people aged 20-29 are spreading it in the same way their counterparts in Europe were found to be.

And Jenrick himself is one of those who broke his own government’s lockdown rules – twice – so he could visit his second home – a huge mansion – and visit family members staying there.

The response was strong:

Jenrick’s own claim to be acting in the name of public safety has been hotly disputed, partly because he is more interested in getting parents back to work and reviving the economy than in the safety of children at school –

If you want to know how that’s going, here are the figures:

– and especially after the man who is, remember, housing secretary helped vote down an attempt to make housing safer in the wake of the Grenfell Tragedy.

The Labour Party tried to amend the Fire Safety Bill currently going through Parliament to include recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry’s phase one report, published last October – including the removal of flammable cladding from buildings where people live.

Shockingly, despite a government undertaking to remove this potentially fatal substance, the latest government figures released in August showed that Grenfell-style cladding had not been removed from more than 80 per cent of private sector buildings and nearly 50 per cent of social sector buildings.

Jenrick voted against the amendment, alongside the rest of his murderous Tory Party.

If any more fires happen due to this cladding, then the Tories who took part in that vote should be held responsible for any deaths.

To add hypocrisy to this injury, let’s all remember that Jenrick had the cheek to lay a wreath at the memorial wall beside Grenfell Tower for the first anniversary of the tragedy:

Of course he won’t face justice for any of his corrupt choices.

As a Tory minister, Robert Jenrick remains well above the law and the police absolutely refuse to investigate any crimes alleged against him.

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Homeless man suffers ‘severe burns’ after being attacked and set on fire

This could happen to any of us – including the culprits.

Thanks to our charming, caring, compassionate Conservative government, millions of UK citizens have savings of less than £100, are in jobs that are slowly putting them in debt, or are on benefits that may be suspended at any time, for the flimsiest reasons.

It is easier to lose your home now than at any time in nearly 80 years at least.

And thanks to Tory propaganda, people who are homeless are considered to be less than human, and are often treated as such.

It’s a fascist attitude, and it leads to crimes like this.

The Tories mouth regretful platitudes but actions speak louder than words and while they could reverse the trend of increasing homelessness, they don’t.

The victim of this attack will survive. One day he may even get a home. But his hands will never be the same again.

All due to the blind, unthinking hate fostered by Tory “divide and conquer” policies.

A homeless man has been “deliberately” set on fire as he was sleeping in a park.

West Midlands Police believe two people approached the victim in the Swanswell Park and Pool area of Coventry, poured lighter fluid over his hands and then set him alight.

Investigators said the man was thought to have suffered “severe burns”.

The attack took place some time on late Saturday night or the early hours of Sunday morning, they added.

Earlier this month a homeless man was left with nothing but the clothes on his back after his van was engulfed by flames in what is suspected to be a deliberate attack in Whitstable, Kent.

Source: Homeless man ‘deliberately’ set on fire as he slept in park, police say | The Independent

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