orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
What's happened mate? Government using anti-terrorist legislation to prop themselves up again?
Current Affairs The Conservative Party
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His comments on the rail strikes and the fact he hates the north.
Never seen a more punchable face in my life.
tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
Taxi for May:
Exclusive: No 10 knew about Patel meetings
The JC understands that Ms Patel was told by Number 10 not to include extra meetings so as not to embarrass the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
[...]
Number 10 instructed Development Secretary Priti Patel not to include her meeting with the Israel foreign ministry official Yuval Rotem in New York on 18 September in her list of undisclosed meetings with Israelis which was published on Monday, the JC has learned.
Ms Patel listed 12 meetings in the statement, and the emergence of two more last night is thought to have made her sacking imminent.
But the JC understands, from two different sources, that Ms Patel did disclose the meeting with Mr Rotem but was told by Number 10 not to include it as it would embarrass the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
In addition, the JC can reveal that although Ms Patel’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not authorised in advance, the British government was made aware of it within hours.
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/no-10-knew-about-priti-patel-israel-meetings-1.447605
That story makes zero sense. For a start, if you were going to use someone as a back-channel to the Israelis then the last person you would use to do it is a Cabinet minister who is not an ally. Secondly Patel's story unravelled in large part because of statements on the record from No.10; even someone as useless as May is would surely not undo their own plot like that.
Patel went to all those meetings for purposes as yet we can only guess at, and thought she could get away with it because of May's weakness.
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
Cheers, no mate, i've just glimpsed through an ft article and I couldn't owt. Link please?
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
If she's not close she can be stitched for the fall serving a dual purpose, perhaps?
They should go for Big Sam, he's good at keeping flagging teams performing in an elite environment. Then we wouldn't have to worry about him.
tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
This isn't Iran, or North Korea, or any other state or terror group where there would be a scandal if they were caught speaking to them. Even the idea that discussions being revealed would humiliate the pro-Arab FO is a nonsense, its happened before (Blair did it repeatedly) and our government is not far off being blindly pro-Israel anyway.
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
She's a representative of the state. I think you're underestimating the situation. It doesn't matter which nation was involved.
arminisgod
Player Valuation: £35m
this government are basically an episode of the thick of it... with shitter and more dangerous actors!
Patel will take May down with her, well she wont but the people who are pissed off she has been allowed to walk instead of being sacked.
And Boris Johnson.... how has he managed to get away with it? he has basically signed the death warrant of a UK citizen with his complete incompetance, its discgraceful
Patel will take May down with her, well she wont but the people who are pissed off she has been allowed to walk instead of being sacked.
And Boris Johnson.... how has he managed to get away with it? he has basically signed the death warrant of a UK citizen with his complete incompetance, its discgraceful
tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
Oh, it does. If this was negotiations with the EU (or states like Russia, Syria or Iran) then I could see the rationale for denying everything. This was negotiating with a country that 80% of the parliamentary Tory party are members of the front group for.
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
It's beyond what an arbitrary 'party' of mp's think, and is a matter of national security mate.
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
Don’t be distracted by the chaos at No 10. The real problem is rotten ideology
Owen Jones
It’s not just the bungling of Johnson and Patel that is sinking the Tory ship. It’s also the dead weight of their neoliberal politics
Wednesday 8 November 2017 19.42 GMTLast modified on Thursday 9 November 201707.51 GMT
This isn’t a government, it’s a parody of one. Theresa May has the trappings, residence and salary of a prime minister,but little else. It’s like Night of the Living Dead meets Fawlty Towers, where the politically undead govern with an almost unwatchable level of farce.
This is a decaying administration with no unifying programme, whose leading figures increasingly loathe each other on both ideological and personal grounds. They pretend to govern purely out of fear that, if they do not, their opponents really will. It is the terror – and “terror” is the correct word to describe how they feel – of a Jeremy Corbyn government assuming office that keeps them from imploding altogether.
It’s often called a zombie government, but if you watch a zombie flick, you will notice that the undead have a sense of purpose – going after the enemy – and they don’t turn on each other. The Tories would love to be in such a position.
Their dilemma is thus. From the 1970s onwards, the party established a new order based on privatisation, deregulation, an assault on collective organising, and slashing taxes on the rich and corporate Britain. In the aftermath of the cold war and the surrender of social democracy to neoliberalism, Tories told themselves their order would last for ever.
fight a life-saving EU tobacco control directivebecause it hit the profits of tobacco merchants.
It is a national humiliation that this sort of character, who offers only twisted ideological zeal and naked self-advancement in place of ability and basic decency, became one of our most powerful politicians. We know she apparently set her up own freelance foreign policy (though it is not clear exactly what No 10 knew and when), visited the illegally occupied Golan Heights, and offered to shower British aid money on an Israeli army currently enforcing a brutal occupation. Patel did this because she knows May’s career is a festering carcass, and she is among the many circling vultures.
Quick Guide
Priti Patel's fall from grace
And now that Patel has resigned, how can Boris Johnson remain as foreign secretary? His extensive back catalogue of lying, bigotry and general charlatanry would, in a world which did not favour the malign and self-serving, have precluded him from the post of Britain’s chief international representative. It is criminal that this media-created buffoon was allowed to take a position which, because his self-regard is only matched by his incompetence, could have cost Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe another four years in an Iranian prison.
That should haunt Johnson for the rest of his life. It won’t – he’s beyond shameless. But it should torture May until her final days. Is she really, deep down, so shocked that this disaster could have happened when she herself appointed him foreign secretary?
However, Labour should not be complacent. Yes, the political winds are on the party’s side; yes, it began an election campaign 24 points behind and almost drew level the Tories within six weeks. But despite the Tories’ meltdown, this shambolic party of government still polls around 40%.
These supporters are an overlapping coalition of wealthy voters, older voters who have been protected from the extremes of austerity, and the socially conservative. They are united not behind any inspiring Tory vision, but a fear of a leftwing departure from the status quo. A decisive Labour victory – and the end of this social order – is possible, though far from inevitable, and it still has to be fought for.
But good grief. When has a governing party in British history inflicted such damage on itself, from the EU referendum to the snap election, merely because of crude attempts at gaining party advantage? Britain is currently facing one of its greatest challenges since the second world war. At the same time, we have the most chaotic, divided, farcical administration in our modern history.
To her credit, after David Cameron’s downfall, May understood that the political tide was shifting. On her wall hangs the speech she made on her first day in No 10 about the great injustices afflicting British society. And the preamble of the 2017 Conservative party manifesto did, wisely, accept that the public appetite for free market fundamentalism was not there.
But the sad reality for the Tories – though happily for the nation – is that a party ideologically wedded to a failed economic and political settlement has no answers. Sure, this surreal performance art masquerading as a government will be remembered for incompetence. But let’s not forget that it was New Labour – despite some humanising tweaks – and the Tories who propped up this crumbling order. That’s the real story here, not the hopeless and the helpless scurrying around a sinking Tory ship, occasionally throwing each other overboard.
When they finally defenestrate May – it could be at any moment – the Conservative party will try to pin every calamity on her. Don’t let them. It’s the Tories’ rotten ideology that lies at the root of this government’s existential crisis. And the task ahead – which will prove one of the most challenging missions in British history – is to build a new social order instead.
...I wouldn’t be surprised if Priti Patel turns rogue.
orchard
Player Valuation: £60m
European leaders ‘expect UK government to fall’ following Priti Patel resignation
Written by Agnes Chambre and Tom Freeman on 9 November 2017 in News
Two high-profile resignations and a diplomatic blunder by the Foreign Secretary leaves Theresa May "fragile", according to a European leader
Theresa May and Priti Patel - Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
European leaders are reportedly concerned that Theresa May's "fragile" Government to fall before the new year, following the Cabinet chaos of the last week.
May's cabinet has lost two major players in Michael Fallon, who resigned amid the Westminster sexual harassment scandal, and Priti Patel, who yesterday was summoned from a foreign trip to resign over secret meetings with Israeli officials.
One European leader revealed Brussels are considering all options, from the UK crashing out without a deal to a reversal of the decision to leave the bloc.
The leader told The Times:“There is the great difficulty of the leadership in Great Britain, which is more and more fragile. Britain is very weak and the weakness of Theresa May makes [Brexit] negotiations very difficult.”
Patel quit the Cabinet last night following showdown talks with Theresa May over her secret meetings with Israeli officials during a family holiday in the summer.
After a day of drama and farce, the International Development Secretary resigned following a 33-minute meeting in Number 10.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Patel’s allies warned she felt like a “scapegoat” and said she could go “off like a double-barrelled shotgun”.
An ally said: “She has been obviously constrained in Government in what she can say, but privately she’s been hugely frustrated with the behaviour of some of her colleagues.
"She’ll go off like a double-barrelled shotgun, she is livid. She’ll make her feelings clear about [Remain campaigners] Philip Hammond, Anna Soubry, all of them.
“She is pretty plain-speaking and an admirer of strong government, which is not something we’ve had.”
Another ally told the paper: “She is being made a scapegoat. It is not credible that the Foreign Office knew about these meetings but Downing Street did not.
"She left for Uganda after apologising and being told that she was safe. Now they are bowing to pressure.
“She could do some pretty hard damage to Downing Street.”
Patel’s dramatic departure means May has lost two Cabinet members in just over a week, following Defence Secretary Michael Fallon's resignation last Wednesday.
The Government has also been rocked this week after a gaffe by Boris Johnson left British national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at risk of serving five more years in an Iranian jail.
And Damian Green, the Prime Minister's de facto deputy, is also under investigation over claims he sexually harassed a female journalist, and that pornography was found on his work computer during a police raid in 2008.
The First Secretary categorically denies both allegations.
There may be calls for a vote of no confidence in May's government in the coming days. Labour MP Stephen Kinnock has already called for one, suggesting it should read: “That this house has no confidence in the ability of her majesty’s government to negotiate the terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in such a way as to protect and promote the jobs, livelihoods and long-term interests of the British people.”
Former SNP depute leader candidate Chris McEleny, the party's leader in Inverclyde, has called for his Westminster colleagues to pursue a vote of no confidence.
"When a Government stops governing it is no longer a Government. This is clearly the most chaotic and lamentable Government in modern history. It is time for them to go," he said.
Theresa May currently does not command a majority in the Commons but a deal with the DUP means she will expect the party to back her if such a vote was to take place.
Written by Agnes Chambre and Tom Freeman on 9 November 2017 in News
Two high-profile resignations and a diplomatic blunder by the Foreign Secretary leaves Theresa May "fragile", according to a European leader
Theresa May and Priti Patel - Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
European leaders are reportedly concerned that Theresa May's "fragile" Government to fall before the new year, following the Cabinet chaos of the last week.
May's cabinet has lost two major players in Michael Fallon, who resigned amid the Westminster sexual harassment scandal, and Priti Patel, who yesterday was summoned from a foreign trip to resign over secret meetings with Israeli officials.
One European leader revealed Brussels are considering all options, from the UK crashing out without a deal to a reversal of the decision to leave the bloc.
The leader told The Times:“There is the great difficulty of the leadership in Great Britain, which is more and more fragile. Britain is very weak and the weakness of Theresa May makes [Brexit] negotiations very difficult.”
Patel quit the Cabinet last night following showdown talks with Theresa May over her secret meetings with Israeli officials during a family holiday in the summer.
After a day of drama and farce, the International Development Secretary resigned following a 33-minute meeting in Number 10.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Patel’s allies warned she felt like a “scapegoat” and said she could go “off like a double-barrelled shotgun”.
An ally said: “She has been obviously constrained in Government in what she can say, but privately she’s been hugely frustrated with the behaviour of some of her colleagues.
"She’ll go off like a double-barrelled shotgun, she is livid. She’ll make her feelings clear about [Remain campaigners] Philip Hammond, Anna Soubry, all of them.
“She is pretty plain-speaking and an admirer of strong government, which is not something we’ve had.”
Another ally told the paper: “She is being made a scapegoat. It is not credible that the Foreign Office knew about these meetings but Downing Street did not.
"She left for Uganda after apologising and being told that she was safe. Now they are bowing to pressure.
“She could do some pretty hard damage to Downing Street.”
Patel’s dramatic departure means May has lost two Cabinet members in just over a week, following Defence Secretary Michael Fallon's resignation last Wednesday.
The Government has also been rocked this week after a gaffe by Boris Johnson left British national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at risk of serving five more years in an Iranian jail.
And Damian Green, the Prime Minister's de facto deputy, is also under investigation over claims he sexually harassed a female journalist, and that pornography was found on his work computer during a police raid in 2008.
The First Secretary categorically denies both allegations.
There may be calls for a vote of no confidence in May's government in the coming days. Labour MP Stephen Kinnock has already called for one, suggesting it should read: “That this house has no confidence in the ability of her majesty’s government to negotiate the terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in such a way as to protect and promote the jobs, livelihoods and long-term interests of the British people.”
Former SNP depute leader candidate Chris McEleny, the party's leader in Inverclyde, has called for his Westminster colleagues to pursue a vote of no confidence.
"When a Government stops governing it is no longer a Government. This is clearly the most chaotic and lamentable Government in modern history. It is time for them to go," he said.
Theresa May currently does not command a majority in the Commons but a deal with the DUP means she will expect the party to back her if such a vote was to take place.
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