Tag Archives: Johnny Mercer

Tory minister’s inappropriate response to challenge means he should resign

Johnny Mercer: he’ll be grinning on the other side of his face if voters in his Plymouth Moor View constituency demand a higher standard from their representative.

It’s time to demand a restoration of standards among our politicians – and Johnny Mercer simply doesn’t rise to mine.

This Site covered his inappropriate behaviour towards media personality Carol Vorderman earlier, after he denigrated her support for former Royal Marine Fred Thomas’s bid to unseat him in the next general election.

He suggested she has a “shit lonely life” (his words), that “no one normal really cares” about her support for Mr Thomas, that “they think you’re mad”, and finished with a series of “puking” emojis.

This is a breach of at least the seventh Nolan principle of public life – that he should treat others with respect.

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Today, we learn that Mercer – who is Minister for Veterans, remember – doubled down on his attack by turning his attention to Mr Thomas himself. Here’s Vorders again:

Again: no respect.

And if he’s not going to respect a fellow politician and former serviceman who rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Marines, then I think we can be sure he has never respected any of the other former servicepeople his job title suggests he should represent.

In the past, when ministers’ behaviour crossed a line beyond what is acceptable, they either chose, or were made, to do the decent thing and resign their position.

Recently, they have scorned the voters by choosing to brazen it out – keeping their jobs and ministerial paycheques in spite of outrage at their behaviour. Bear in mind that James Cleverly remains Home Secretary, nearly a week after his offensive comments about the date-rape drug Rohypnol.

As voters, we need to re-establish our boundaries – and make it clear to politicians that we expect the highest standards from them.

If they won’t commit to those standards voluntarily, then we should enforce them at the ballot box, by removing them from public life the hard way.

Mercer and Cleverly’s inappropriate behaviour make them entirely appropriate candidates for such treatment.


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Former Marine to stand against Johnny Mercer after failure to end veterans’ homelessness

Keyboard warrior: Johnny Mercer responded with anger to the revelation that an Armed Forces veteran will try to unseat him at the next general election after he failed to reduce veterans’ homelessness, instead presiding over a 14 per cent increase.

A former Royal Marine is to stand as Labour’s candidate against former Army officer and current Minister for Veterans Affairs, Johnny Mercer, at the next general election – as Mercer himself suggested.

Mercer swore to end veterans’ homelessness in 2023, saying, “Hold me to account.”

But he has failed dramatically, with veterans’ homelessness in fact increasing by 14 per cent.

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Here’s Carol Vorderman with some facts:

Will he apologise, asked Mr Thomas.

Apparently not.

Instead – well, here’s Vorders again:

To support herself, Vorders has tweeted some evidence:

If any part of the factual information above is wrong, This Writer would be interested to know.

But it all looks fairly clear to me.


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The news in tweets: Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Sunak axes UK climate change policy. Was Zac Goldmith right about him?

It seems Zac Goldsmith was right when he said Rishi Sunak was “simply uninterested” in saving the environment.

It’s been a bad week for Sunak – and he’s only halfway through it.

He has been hiding from Parliament – and in fact has been absent from Prime Minister’s Questions more than any other prime minister since the 1970s.

He was lambasted by the Commons Liaison Committee for failing to turn up to PMQs, and for votes on major issues like the Partygate Inquiry’s report or motions against Conservative MPs.

And he has failed to achieve any of the five targets he has set himself.

But he has been perfectly willing to provide his opinion on cricket.

He seems to be in the wrong job. Is he really only there to funnel public cash to his Tory friends?

Is Rwanda safe for refugees? Not according to this Rwandan politician

Education Secretary’s comments about independent pay review bodies will enrage hard-up teachers

MP Mercer’s wife commences hostilities – against Carol Vorderman

(Personally, This Writer has found Ms Vorderman’s political commentary to be spot-on, ever since I first heard her opinions on ITV’s This Morning. If you’re not reading her Twitter feed, you’re missing out.)

Shouldn’t Johnny Mercer and his missus be more worried about this?


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Mercer’s threat may be toothless, but it demonstrates May’s loss of control

Show of defiance: Johnny Mercer reckons he can exploit Theresa May’s weakness to demand action on a single issue. What if large numbers of Conservatives follow suit?

There’s not really much point in withdrawing support from the government over everything but Brexit when Brexit is all that’s left on the agenda.

Still, Johnny Mercer’s decision to make a stand – no matter how weak – on the prosecution of British servicemen over historical allegations demonstrates very clearly Theresa May’s loss of authority.

She has no Parliamentary majority now; her alliance with the DUP has been used up and it will cost another vast amount of public money to renew it, if she even thinks that would be worthwhile.

Some Conservative MPs have quit to join Change UK and one is facing the loss of his seat after being convicted of expenses fraud.

Now Mr Mercer has made a show of resistance.

Will others – who may be in a position to do more damage – do the same?

Conservative MP Johnny Mercer says he has withdrawn his support for the government over the historical prosecution of British servicemen.

A former Army officer, Mr Mercer called on Theresa May in a letter to end the “macabre spectacle of elderly veterans being dragged back to Northern Ireland” to face possible prosecution.

In his letter to the prime minister, the Plymouth Moor View MP said he found investigations into historic allegations surrounding ex-services personnel “personally offensive”

He said he was not to prepared to vote for Government legislation – except on Brexit – until the Government took “clear and concrete steps” to end the “abhorrent process”.

Source: Johnny Mercer: Tory MP withdraws support for government over historical prosecution of servicemen | The Independent

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Tory MP endorses violence to defeat enemies. He means HIS enemies, not ours

Oppressor: It seems Johnny Mercer wants young people to join our armed forces so a Tory government can order them to brutalise others in the name of far-right-wing political dogma.

What kind of twisted mind does Plymouth’s Tory MP, Johnny Mercer possess?

He has started a huge debate with a claim that there is nothing wrong with killing to defeat the enemies of a nation.

Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to him that, to many of us, he is an enemy of the United Kingdom.

By his own reckoning, would I not be well within my rights to gather a few dozen like-minded people, track him down and beat him brutally with baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire (for example)?

No, of course I wouldn’t. He doesn’t mean it like that.

We’re told he made his comment in a tweet encouraging young people to join the army. It stated: “The application of violence to defeat the enemies of the nation has become worryingly unpopular. Nothing wrong with fighting (yes killing) for values/what you believe in. The oppressed/bullied/tormented/voiceless deserve it. Join the fight; best thing you’ll ever do.”

So he wasn’t discussing “the application of violence” for “values you believe in”. He meant he wants young people to enlist in order to apply violence in the name of values he believes in.

And what about the line that “the oppressed/bullied/tormented/voiceless deserve it”? If you think he means they deserve protection, think again!

Mr Mercer means the oppressed/bullied/tormented/voiceless deserve to be oppressed/bullied/tormented/voiceless.

If you don’t believe me, just look at Conservative policies regarding sick and disabled benefit claimants since 2010.

It’s a philosophy you can see espoused in the movie (and, I suppose, novel) Starship Troopers. Author Robert A Heinlein had imagined a future civilisation in which far-right politics had conquered the world and in one scene, a character states that violence is “the supreme authority from which all other authority is derived… Naked force has resolved more issues throughout history than any other factor. The contrary opinion, that violence never solves anything, is wishful thinking at its worst. People who forget that always pay.”

This is what Johnny Mercer believes – but notice that he doesn’t want to put himself at risk in the application of that “naked force”. He wants the plebs to do that for him.

Note that he served in the Army as an officer, not in the ranks.

Officers are the people who decide how troops should be deployed, and send them out – often to their deaths. But they don’t often put their own lives on the line, and I wonder how often they expect to be asked to take the lives of others, as Mr Mercer is clearly asking others to do in his tweet.

My point is that it is easy to sign orders for other people to die, and to expect other people to carry out those orders. But it is less easy to actually do it oneself.

So what does Mr Mercer’s tweet actually mean? As indicated, this has been the subject of heated debate.

An article in The Independent has published several responses which make good points, as follows:

“Noelle Moysi said: “Is this really what you mean? You’re an MP and words matter. Jo Cox was killed by someone fighting for what they believed in. Jo Cox’s murderer saw her as an enemy of the nation and shouted the words Britain first as he did it.”

“Helen Troup‏ said Mr Mercer’s remarks were “exactly the justification used by the IRA of course”.

“Lavendar Luke said: “I believe synth music is better than guitar music. Yet when I kill and fight for my beliefs I’m ‘a psychopath’ apparently. Thanks for standing up for me Johnny.””

My own suggestion about the meaning of the tweet would be this:

It means he wants he wants the young people of the United Kingdom to put themselves at risk of death in order to subject the oppressed/bullied/tormented/voiceless to the worst far-right-wing domination possible, while he and his fellow Tories sit back and call the shots.

No thanks. If he wants to go around bullying other people – at home or abroad – he can damn well try it on his own and see how far his “values” get him then.

These Tories always talk big when the odds are stacked in their favour and it’s your life on the line.

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Sh*t show MP is a part-timer: Mercer makes £85,000 on the side

The two faces of Johnny Mercer: Outspoken MP up front – shadowy security firm director in the background.

Why all the fuss about Tory misery Johnny Mercer?

The Plymouth Moor MP earned plaudits from a certain element of the electorate for calling his own party a “sh*t show” and saying he wouldn’t vote Conservative if he wasn’t a Tory MP.

Here‘s PoliticsHome: “Johnny Mercer has said he would not vote Conservative if he was not already an MP for the party.

“The backbencher also suggested his values are no longer aligned with the party and said there would be “absolutely no chance” he would be a Conservative candidate now.

“The Plymouth Moor View MP, seen as a rising star in the Tory ranks, also branded Theresa May’s government a “shit show” and said he would not join her administration if he was offered a job.”

But how can anyone support his attack, now we all know he isn’t even a full-time MP?

He doesn’t have time to join her “sh*t show” of a government because he’s too busy being a “non-executive” director of a cyber-security firm.

Here‘s PlymouthLive: “Plymouth Moor View MP Johnny Mercer has landed a second job at a ‘cyber security’ firm earning £85,000 a year.

The ex-soldier has secured the role of ‘non-executive director’ for military veterans support company Crucial Academy Ltd.

The Tory backbencher will be paid £85,000 a year in return for working 20 hours a month – equivalent to £354 an hour.

That’s on top of his paycheck as a member of parliament – £77,379 – taking his total annual earnings to £162,379.

So: Loadsamoney and no responsibility. How is that different from Theresa May’s government of ignorant toffs?

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