Tag Archives: Parliament

Sunak’s ‘inadvertent’ conflict of interest shows he is not fit to govern

Childcare shareholder Akshata Murty and her husband, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak: her firm should forgo any benefit from the new Tory policy, just to rid itself of the stain of corruption with which he has tarred it. And his serial “inadvertency” means he is not fit to govern.

Rishi Sunak and his government gets away with it – yet again.

I think this comment on the latest Tory corruption saga is highly relevant:

Yes, this is the story of how a new government policy, announced in the spring Budget, was geared to give huge amounts of money to a childcare company in which Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty has shares; he and his family would have benefited – but he did not declare it.

This is a breach of the Ministerial Code and an investigation was duly requested.

Now, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has reported back – and said the failure to declare the conflict of interest was “inadvertent”. No further action will be taken.

In fairness, Sunak made a grovelling apology for failing to reveal that this government policy would make his family richer:

And the Prime Minister’s press secretary has said: “The commissioner’s investigation into the Prime Minister’s declaration of interest has been resolved by way of rectification. The Prime Minister takes seriously his responsibilities to register and declare all relevant interests.”

That’s all very well, but Sunak and his family are set to benefit from his omission to mention this interest, and that isn’t right. Nobody should use a position of power to feather their own nest.

So Ms Murty’s firm should be excluded from the list of those that are to benefit from this government policy – if only to rid itself (and the Tory government) of the stain of corruption with which Sunak has tarred it. Right?

Isn’t it odd that we don’t see that happening?

And it seems Sunak leads a government that is guilty of serial inadvertency:

That’s a lot of forgetfulness.

It encourages me to believe that none of these Tories are likely to remember important facts when they are needed – and this could cause serious harm to the UK and its people, given the seriousness of the crises we are currently being forced to endure.

By their own admission, Sunak and his party are not fit to govern.

Chris Bryant undermines his own book by supporting scandal-hit MP

Chris Bryant: he seems to have shot himself in the foot, verbally.

The politician who chairs the House of Commons’ committee on Standards has written a book about how MPs can regain public trust after a series of scandals – but undermined himself by speaking in support of the first MP to cause such a scandal after the Tories took office in 2010.

Here’s Chris Bryant, talking about his book Code of Conduct on the BBC’s Breakfast News today (August 8, 2023):

In the clip, he mentions Liam Fox, praising his work regarding Down’s Syndrome and saying people should focus on the good work done by people in Parliament.

But Dr Fox had to resign as Defence Secretary in October 2011 over his friendship with Adam Werritty. Here’s Wikipedia on what happened then:

Werritty made visits to Fox at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in Whitehall on 22 occasions in 16 months; Werrity was not security-cleared with the MoD. Additionally, over a 17-month period, ending October 2011, Werritty was present at 40 of Fox’s 70 recorded engagements. The uncertain nature of Werritty’s relationship with Fox led to an investigation by senior civil servants, initially the MoD’s Permanent Secretary, Ursula Brennan and latterly the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell. Fox claimed that Werrity had never worked for him either in an official or unofficial capacity despite allegations that he was using a source of advice outside the Civil Service, paid for by private funds. Disclosure of increasing amounts of detail of their contact, funding and explanations of their relationship led to Fox’s resignation on 14 October 2011 in advance of O’Donnell’s report of his investigation.

So he fled from office in disgrace over allegations of impropriety. Any good work he has done since then cannot be used to disregard that.

But Bryant wants to give him a free pass.

It’s a highly surprising misstep that – sadly – calls into question his judgement and raises questions about the validity of any observations he makes in his book. Right?

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Jeremy Corbyn’s wife is in group aiming to unseat Sir Keir Starmer

This is encouraging:

Jeremy Corbyn’s wife is part of a group set up to unseat Sir Keir Starmer at the next general election that is also discussing standing independent candidates against Labour in coming by-elections.

Screenshots leaked to Sky News show an account belonging to Laura Alvarez is a member of the Organise Corbyn Inspired Socialist Alliance (OCISA) Facebook group.

Further images show Ms Alvarez’s account commenting in the group – including posting “disgusting creature” on a photo of Sir Keir.

Source: Jeremy Corbyn’s wife Laura Alvarez in group aiming to unseat Sir Keir Starmer at next election | Politics News | Sky News

EXTRA: This Site has been contacted by a person wishing to clarify OCISA’s side of the story.

They say: “Laura isn’t a figurehead for OCISA. She didn’t say Starmer is disgusting.

“OCISA will not be standing candidates around the country – only in Holborn and St Pancras, although members are being encouraged to support Socialist candidates in their areas.”

They added: “Membership has shot up, so Sky did us a favour!”

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Labour MP ‘vindicated’ for calling Boris Johnson a liar. Shame her party didn’t support her then or now

Dawn Butler: vindicated.

After the Commons Privileges Committee published its report on Partygate, saying Boris Johnson is a liar, I sent this tweet to Dawn Butler, Labour MP for Brent Central:

She didn’t answer – at least, not directly. She didn’t have to.

The following day, an article by Ms Butler appeared in Metro – exhaustively detailing her feelings about having been thrown off the Parliamentary estate in 2021 and her thoughts about the situation now.

She reckons the system is broken because there is no way to highlight wrongdoing by people in the highest offices in the UK without being penalised for it – and she wants change.

But she admits she isn’t likely to get it, because a corrupt House of Commons wants to keep its corrupt system. Or at least, that’s how it seems to This Writer.

Ms Butler stated:

I feel vindicated.

But I am also more adamant than ever that the system must change.

When I first labelled Boris Johnson a liar, I was ridiculed by Tory MPs, criticised by sections of the press and received a barrage of hateful messages online.

Perhaps worst of all, I felt unsupported by many in my own party.

What kept me going in those dark days was the masses of positive messages I received from the public, outweighing the abuse. So many people wanted to thank me, saying how refreshing it was to see someone call out the lies.

And now that a committee of MPs has made a ruling on Boris Johnson’s cavalier approach to the truth, I’m more glad than ever that I made that stand.

But she said changing the system is uphill work:

We need the system to be strengthened and mechanisms put in place to ensure that Prime Ministers like Johnson are tackled early on, to minimise damage to our democracy. We cannot go through this again.

Because it could happen again. His casual approach to the truth, after all, paid off for him until now. He held the highest office in the land and has been making millions since.

And we must ensure that when they have broken the rules, they cannot run away from accountability.

The most frustrating element for me is the fact that the Prime Minister is the ultimate arbiter of the ministerial code. When Johnson was PM, he was the judge and jury over whether he or any of his ministers had broken said code – as evidenced when he overruled his own ethics adviser to decide that then Home Secretary Priti Patel could stay in a job.

In 2021, I tabled an Early Day Motion 383 stating that trust in the code had been eroded, and that breaches should be investigated by the House as a whole rather than the Prime Minister. To date, I’ve received an impressive 105 signatures.

So just 106 out of 650 MPs believe the current corrupt system – that allowed Boris Johnson to lie repeatedly to the nation and ensure that his cronies kept the top governmental jobs, no matter how badly they misbehaved – should change.

It seems to This Writer that the problem isn’t just Boris Johnson but also most of the other MPs infesting the House of Commons – including those members of Ms Butler’s own party who did not support her when she was victimised for telling the truth and do not support her call for reform now.

Source: I was demonised for calling Boris Johnson a liar – I feel vindicated | UK News | Metro News

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Liberty launches lawsuit against Suella Braverman for overriding Parliament on protest powers

Suella Braverman: it seems she’ll be bringing that glower to a judge in the High Court, sometime in the near future.

The organisation Liberty, that challenges injustice, defends freedom and campaigns to make sure everyone in the UK is treated fairly, is taking Home Secretary Suella Braverman to court.

The action comes after Braverman overrode Parliament to change the Public Order Act in order to give police a free hand to arrest anybody carrying out an act of protest, depending on how disruptive officers think it is.

Here’s what Liberty has to say about it:

Human rights organisation Liberty has started legal action against the Home Secretary Suella Braverman over new anti-protest legislation which it says that she is unlawfully bringing in by the back door despite not having been given the powers to do so by Parliament.

In a pre-action letter sent to the Home Secretary, Liberty said that plans to give the police more powers to impose restrictions on protests that cause ‘more than minor’ disruption are unlawful.

The move – which uses secondary legislation to bring the powers into force – violates the constitutional principle of the separation of powers because the measures have already been rejected by Parliament.

By bringing in these powers, the Government has been accused of breaking the law to give the police ‘almost unlimited’ powers to shut down protests due to the vagueness of the new language.

The Government’s plans to lower the threshold of what constitutes ‘serious disruption’ at a protest were previously voted out of the Public Order Act by Parliament earlier this year (30 January).

Liberty says the Home Secretary has now changed the law entirely in a way that is an overreach of her power – defining ‘serious disruption’ as anything that causes ‘more than minor’ disruption.

A cross party parliamentary group committee has recently said this is the first time the Government has sought to makes changes to the law through secondary legislation that have already been rejected by Parliament when introduced in primary legislation.

Liberty’s letter to the Home Secretary says:  

  • The Secretary of State is seeking to amend the threshold on protest powers set by Parliament by the back door in ways that expand the powers of the police to restrict protest activity.
  • Parliament only gave powers to clarify the law, and not change it entirely. Therefore, Parliament cannot have intended to give the Secretary of State power to amend primary legislation in a way which circumvents the will of Parliament because this would incur on the constitutional principle of the separation of powers.
  • The making of the Serious Disruption Regulations would be unlawful for being an unjustified interference with the principle of Parliamentary sovereignty.
  • The new legislation was not consulted on fairly, as is required by law. The Government only invited in parties it knew would agree with the proposals, such as the police, but did not ask groups who might have had reasonable concerns.

Katy Watts, Lawyer at Liberty, said:  

“We all want to live in a society where our Government is open, transparent and respects the rules. But, as we’ve seen today, the Home Secretary has not abided by any of these.

“The Home Secretary has side-lined Parliament to sneak in new legislation via the back door, despite not having the powers to do so.

“This has been done deliberately in a way which enables the Government to circumvent Parliament – who voted these same proposals down just a few months ago – and is a flagrant breach of the separation of powers that exist in our constitution.

“This is yet another power grab from the Government, as well as the latest in a long line of attacks on our right to protest, making it harder for the public to stand up for what they believe in.

“The wording of the Government’s new law is so vague that anything deemed ‘more than a minor’ disturbance could have restrictions imposed upon it.

“In essence, this gives the police almost unlimited powers to stop any protest the Government doesn’t agree with.

“This not only violates our rights, but the way it’s been done is simply unlawful. This same rule was democratically rejected earlier this year, yet the Home Secretary has gone ahead and introduced it through other means regardless.

“We’ve launched this legal action to ensure this overreach is checked and that the Government is not allowed to put itself above the law to do whatever it wants. It’s really important that the Government respects the law and that today’s decision is reversed immediately.”

Source: LIBERTY LAUNCHES LEGAL ACTION AGAINST HOME SECRETARY FOR OVERRIDING PARLIAMENT ON PROTEST POWERS – Liberty

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Jeremy Corbyn hints he’ll stand in next general election as he marks 40 years in Parliament

Jeremy Corbyn chats with one or two friends in his constituency… Oh, all right. This is in fact how he was greeted in Leeds, back in 2017.

This will be mud in the eye of the Brylcreem Barrister (as some call him) and his cronies.

Left Foot Forward has reported:

The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has today given his strongest indication yet that he intends to stand as a parliamentary candidate for Islington North in the next general election.

In a Twitter thread marking the 40th anniversary of him first being elected as MP for Islington North, Corbyn said: “It has been an honour representing the people of Islington North. With your support, that is what I’ll continue to do.”

Rumours have proliferated that Mr Corbyn will stand as an Independent since the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee passed a motion by Keir Starmer that barred him from representing that party in any further election.

Now, as he celebrates 40 years as a member of Parliament, he has given the strongest hint yet that this is exactly what he’ll do.

He’s certainly had a lot of support on his anniversary.

Thanks to Corbyn and the movement that grew around him, we have seen how popular left-wing policy positions can be. We now know they almost won a general election despite the most hostile press and Parliamentary Labour Party in political history

wrote Chelley Ryan in the Morning Star, adding:

There is a solidarity that runs deep amongst us all, forged during the Corbyn era.

In the same paper, David Rosenberg wrote about Mr Corbyn’s dedicated work fighting racism and fascism:

And Lindsay German examined his life of pro-peace activism:

Source: Jeremy Corbyn hints he will stand in the next general election 40 years after he was first elected – Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK’s progressive debate

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Another #Labour representative is stabbed in the back. #KeirStarmer is destroying #DEMOCRACY

Beth Winter: backstabbed by her own party for being left-wing.

Beth Winter is the latest Labour MP to be targeted for removal by Keir Starmer’s cronies, who appear to have rigged the selection process for Merthyr Tydfil and Upper Cynon.

This is an offence against democracy, of course. Under Starmer, Labour has turned its back on what the people want and is focusing on changing its own systems to make sure he gets what he wants instead.

The implication for the whole of the UK, if this dictator is ever allowed to get the keys to 10 Downing Street, is horrifying.

Looking at the way he mistreats his own party members, it is unreasonable to believe Starmer will change his behaviour once he is given a chance to attack wider democracy across the country.

Let’s have the facts from that great left-wing commentator, Cornish Damo:

Here’s Ms Winter, with a very diplomatic interpretation of what happened:

She does have supporters in the Parliamentary Labour Party:

But John McDonnell, like the rest of the Socialist Campaign Group within Starmer’s Labour, needs to recognise that his days in that party are numbered. Some of us have been saying for months and years that they all need to quit the party before they are forced out by a pack of lies. We cannot understand why these politicians – who should be more canny than they appear – have not taken this advice. Are they waiting for the right moment?

Elsewhere, the Starmerite attack on North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll continues at full speed:

There is no way to win against the machinations of the Starmerites. Look:

And that is true of the UK as a whole, not just Labour. He’ll do to you what he’s doing to his party.

At least we can all see it for what it is:

One aspect of Labour membership that is well-established is that anybody showing support for other parties or their representatives is a traitor and should be removed. It used to be restricted to voting for them (which makes sense; no party wants a traitor – and possibly a spy – in its midst) but has been expanded to include voicing approval of comments or policies by representatives of other parties.

So when I see this:

… I wonder how Clive Lewis has managed to get away with working with Caroline Lucas, and when the Starmerite axe will fall on him. He sails very close to the wind as it is.

Sadly, the huge propaganda campaign promoting Starmer as the Great White Hope of the UK after 13 years of Tory misrule is proceeding to brainwash the population at a rate of knots, supported as it is by the mass media.

The assumption appears to be that the upset caused to party members by the undemocratic removal of the party’s left wing, transforming it into an agency of factional minority interest rather than the “broad church” it still claims to be, won’t be noticed. Is this true?

This Writer’s advice is: if you are as deeply concerned for the future of democracy under a Keir Starmer government as you should be, get out and (quietly) tell everybody you know.

Home Secretary lies about migrant backlog and refuses to correct herself

Suella Braverman: we don’t have an image showing her expression when she was challenged to correct the record but you can bet it was close to this.

This is yet another shocking display of contempt for Parliament by Suella Braverman.

The Home Secretary gave a statement to MPs yesterday (June 5, 2023) on the number of people awaiting an initial decision on whether they would be granted asylum in the UK – and it was inaccurate, according to the official figures.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pointed this out in a point of order but the Deputy Speaker, Eleanor Laing, did not demand a correction, as you can see below:

The figures show that the total number of cases has indeed increased, as Cooper said:

This Writer can’t actually see the numbers that either politician mentioned in the figures provided; the total number of people waiting for a decision seems to have been more or less static for months.

But that’s not a fall, so Braverman should have corrected the record either way.

Not only has she not done so, but she has actively refused.

That’s contempt of Parliament, as far as I can tell. It is a serious breach of the Ministerial Code and she should be brought to book for it.

But will that happen?

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Tory turned Labour MP lies about Roger Waters and has his *rse handed to him

No anti-Semitism here: this shot from Roger Waters’s Berlin concert shows the flying pig (from the cover of the Pink Floyd album ‘Animals’. It is emblazoned with many slogans but not with the Star of David, as liars have claimed.

I wonder if Keir Starmer put Christian Wakeford up to this.

In the House of Commons last Thursday, he lied to his fellow MPs as follows:

“Roger Waters is due to play at the AO Arena in Manchester next month. Mr Waters performed in Berlin this week and used the name of Anne Frank to stoke division, performed while dressed as an SS soldier and used the star of David on a giant pig to insinuate that Jewish people run the world, forcing the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester to issue a statement condemning his divisive actions. Will the Leader of the House agree that such concerts have no place in our society and should not go ahead? Will she agree to a debate in Government time on the record levels of anti-Jewish hatred in this country?”

None of what Wakeford said about Roger Waters’s performance was true. Not a single word.

This Site has already addressed the mention of Anne Frank, whose name was mentioned in connection with that of murdered Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. I’ll repeat it here, for anybody coming late to this scandal:

The claim is that this is anti-Semitic because it links Israel with Nazism (Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli military forces and Anne Frank died in a Nazi concentration camp).

it seems far more likely that the musician was linking Jewish people with Palestinians by pointing out that both races have suffered oppression – the former historically and the latter currently.

In both cases, their only crime (according to the on-screen verbiage) was belonging to a race that a foreign political regime had chosen to oppress, and in both cases the result was the same: death.

As for the pig… Here’s Alex Nunns:

He’s mistaken on that last point; we need to engage with that stupidity in order to shut it down. Fortunately, Twitter itself has been on hand to set the false claim right:

The material Roger Waters is performing has been a part of popular culture for nearly half a century and has not been questioned before. There’s a very easy answer to the question, “Why now?”

Roger Waters himself has made the following statement:

The statement reads:

“My recent performance in Berlin has attracted bad faith attacks from those who want to smear and silence me because they disagree with my political views and moral principles.

“The elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms. Attempts to portray those elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated. The depiction of an unhinged fascist demagogue has been a feature of my shows since Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” in 1980.

“I have spent my entire life speaking out against authoritarianism and oppression wherever I see it. When I was a child after the war, the name of Anne Frank was often spoken in our house, she became a permanent reminder of what happens when fascism is left unchecked. My parents fought the Nazis in World War II, with my father paying the ultimate price.

“Regardless of the consequences of the attacks against me, I will continue to condemn injustice and all those who perpetrate it.”

So there you have it. No Star of David on the pig, no anti-Semitism in the show. Just a lot of hatred stirred up against a man whose father died fighting the Nazis, and all of it politically-motivated.

All of it could have been disproved by broadcasters (and, indeed, political party leaderships), simply by watching video of the show. Here, I’ll show you how easy it is:

And that brings us back to Christian Wakeford.

There is no excuse for him to have brought these lies about one of the UK’s pop music – indeed, pop culture – legends to Parliament. The facts were available to him before he spoke in the House of Commons.

So either he was ignorant of the facts, which makes him too stupid to be a member of Parliament because he did not do his research properly, and he should make a statement to the Commons, correcting the record…

Or he was deliberately lying, in which case the Speaker should launch proceedings against him for contempt of Parliament and an investigation should take place with possible expulsion as the most extreme sanction against him.

And in the background, I wonder if somebody else put him up to it. Labour leader Keir Starmer is known to be influenced by those lobbyists who scream “anti-Semitism!” at every opportunity.

What’s his role in this? Did he authorise Wakeford to make his statement? Did he ask him to?

And what’s the best thing we can say about Starmer, Wakeford and their party, in the context of this controversy?

Is it that they are just another brick in the wall?

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Has the Green Party finally broken into the political mainstream?

A Green Party supporter provides some insight into what the local election results mean for that organisation’s future:

And this reply is interesting:

But of course there is a fly for this ointment:

Is that still true, though?

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Health Warning: Government! is now available
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The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook