Tag Archives: urgent

Live commentary: Labour’s urgent question on Tory leadership [VIDEO]

Keir Starmer wants Liz Truss to make a statement on the replacement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer – but she’s not even in the Commons Chamber.

Penny Mordaunt says she’s “detained on urgent business” – to hilarity from MPs, none of whom believe a word of it.

Mordaunt says the overriding priority is to restore financial credibility in the face of volatile global conditions – so no mention of the fact that the Tory government created all the problems.

Starmer thanks Mordaunt for acting for the PM: “I guess under this Tory government, everybody gets to be prime minister for 15 minutes.”

Now he’s making a big speech: “Where is the prime minister? Hiding away… The lady’s not for turning… up!

“How can we get stability when this prime minister has no mandate from her party and no mandate from the country?”

Mordaunt comes back with a cheap shot that Starmer won’t have his fifteen minutes as PM.

She says Truss has taken a tough decision, politically and personally, because it is in the national interest.

But that decision was to scrap her own policies – go against her political instincts. It means her policies and judgement were wrong. Doesn’t it mean that she is the wrong choice of prime minister?

Now Mordaunt is criticising Starmer’s political career, suggesting his record shows he does not support the national interest. Much of it is arguable – apart from the fact that he has abandoned all the pledges he made to Labour members in his own leadership campaign. This is true.

Tory Peter Bottomley says when circumstances change, it is time for policies to change – again ignoring the fact that circumstances only changed because Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng made it happen.

SNP spokesperson draws a contrast between Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon spending an hour answering questions on an independent Scotland and the UK prime minister running away and hiding from Parliament.

Angela Eagle describes the UK’s current economic turmoil as one of the largest humiliations it has ever faced – directly attributable to the actions of Liz Truss.

Liberal Democrat Ed Davey says the previous prime minister, Boris Johnson, trashed the public’s faith in the government – and the current prime minister trashed the public’s faith in the economy. He requests an apology – and doesn’t get it.

Hilary Benn asks why Liz Truss is still in office when it is clear to many – including MPs on the Tory benches – that she is no longer in power.

SNP representative says nobody in his party takes joy from the current crisis as it affects everybody in their constituencies.

Mordaunt is struggling – falling back on insisting that the Chancellor should be allowed to make his statement, rather than answering the questions.

Another harsh question: will Mordaunt accept that the possibility of “levelling-up” is dead?

Mordaunt lists Tory policies. They include the so-called “National Living Wage” that leaves working people claiming benefits and is therefore a nonsense.

Responding to Stella Creasy, Mordaunt draws jeers from all sides when she says “The prime minister is not under a desk… She is away for a very good reason.” What reason, then?

No answer. And if no answer is all Mordaunt has to offer – on top of no show from Liz Truss, then there is nothing to be said and the entire Tory government should rethink its future.

[At this point, my commentary ended as I had to take Mrs Mike to an appointment. I thought I had covered most of the event – wrongly. Below, please find a video clip of the whole thing.]

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

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People aren’t trolling Nusrat Ghani because of misogyny – and the reasons are obvious

Nusrat Ghani.

Tory MP Nusrat Ghani appears to be a little upset at the response attracted by her call for an urgent debate on Clive Lewis’s use of the word “bitch”:

The trouble is that she, along with those others who have been trying to make something of this incident, is pushing a false argument.

Nobody is denying the offensive nature of the words used by Mr Lewis – least of all Mr Lewis himself, who has apologised after being made aware that they did cause offence.

But context is everything, and his remark was made in an attempt at humour, with no offence intended – to a man. This is, at the very least, a subversion of the offensive nature of the words – albeit, in hindsight, an unsuccessful one.

The claim that the words used were gendered is easily defeated as there are many instances of men calling other men “bitch”. Indeed, one definition in the Urban Dictionary states that a bitch is a “modern-day servant; a person who performs tasks for another, usually degrading in status”.  To This Writer, it appears to be the relevant definition when considering Mr Lewis’s use of the term. Note the use of the word “person” – not “woman”. Therefore it can be someone of either gender.

Nobody female who was at the event has come forward to say they took offence at the time (to my knowledge), and my understanding is that the organisers took no complaints at the time.

So Mr Lewis used a non-gendered term of abuse, in a humorous (or attemptedly humorous) manner, while speaking to a man.

And Nusrat Ghani wants us to think it implies hatred towards women.

Yes. I would like to see a debate on the subject.

Unfortunately, it seems unlikely:

All things considered, that would be a lucky escape for Ms Ghani.

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Yes, Nusrat Ghani, let’s have that debate about MPs abusing power – we can look at your fellow Tories [STRONG LANGUAGE]

How can Tories complain about anybody’s attitude to women or minorities when Boris Johnson is Foreign Secretary?

Tory MP Nusrat Ghani reckons she will demand an urgent debate in the House of Commons about the incident in which Clive Lewis used the word “bitch” during a social event connected to the Labour Party, a month ago.

Some of us may find it worth comment that she wants an “urgent” debate about an incident that is a month old and is only being discussed now in order to distract the public from the growing list of the minority Conservative government’s failures. Where’s her demand for an urgent debate on her own government’s failure to support the will of Parliament and suspend the Universal Credit rollout?

Here are her tweets:

Oh, right. Using the word “bitch” implies a lack of respect for women. This Writer can certainly get on board with that – but not with the hypocrisy of saying it after reading an article about Mr Lewis on the Guido Fawkes blog, which has a record of abusing that word:

And what about the misogynistic abuse Guido‘s followers heap on women after they’ve been targeted on that website? Here’s an example:

Here’s another:

And there’s this one as well:

The event at which Mr Lewis misspoke was run, presented and owned by women – and no objection was raised at the time. Some have tried to raise indignation because a female voice was heard saying, “This is supposed to be a safe space”. Here’s the owner of that voice:

On top of all the foregoing is the fact that Mr Lewis himself has apologised for his words, which he accepts were completely inappropriate (even though the way they were said ran counter to the misogynistic use that is correctly vilified).

So we’ve established that the fake outrage over Mr Lewis is a storm in a teacup. But a debate could still be useful – to point out the many similar outrages caused by Conservative MPs.

I mean, opponents of the government could raise the obvious policy points:

But let’s admit it – the time would be far better-used discussing the transgressions of individual Tories. Aaron Bastani, whose social media organisation Novara hosted the event at which Mr Lewis said his offending words, listed a few possibles – including, for the sake of fairness, one example concerning a Labour MP:

Boris Johnson is worth an article in his own right – and the Metro has obligingly provided one. In it, Yvette Caster comments on his claim that women go to university because “they’ve got to find men to marry”, that female graduates are responsible for rising house prices – and are making it difficult for other families to get housing, that working women should get back to the home because they are responsible for young people’s antisocial behaviour.

There’s this: “Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3.”

I strongly recommend that you visit the article to experience the full horror.

But Mr Johnson isn’t the only Tory transgressor. What about James Heappey?

I wrote an article on Vox Political about this – ahem – “gentleman”, along with Tory Nick Harrington who said Ireland could “keep its f’king gypsies”. What charming men!

Moving back to the Cabinet, what about Michael Fallon, who called a journalist a “slut”, although it seems he would be more accurate if he applied the term to himself:

Fallon’s people have denied that he used the word but they would, wouldn’t they (to paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies’s words about another Tory defence minister, in another scandal)?

And then there’s the deputy chairman of Bermondsey and Southwark Conservative Association, Rupert Myers QC. Journalist Kate Leaver has alleged that he “forced himself” on her – and I hope everybody reading this knows what that means. If it is true, then not only should he be imprisoned but he should be stripped of his Tory membership and dismissed from the bar (of the court – although it seems he should also be banned from reputable drinking establishments):

Finally, let’s all remember that the inappropriate misuse of language is not restricted to men speaking about women. Let us consider Anna Soubry:

This incident happened in the House of Commons itself, during a Parliamentary debate. Ms Soubry’s words were not picked up by any of the many microphones in the chamber, but she certainly appears to be using those words.

These are just a few examples of incidents in which, mainly, Conservatives have used their “position of power and establishment” abominably and it could easily be argued that they have undermined Parliament by doing so.

So, yes, Nusrat Ghani – let’s have that debate – and let us use it to expose your Tory colleagues as sexist, misogynist, and criminal vermin.

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