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UK Politics - summer edition


Maltaran

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There are now claims that Patel met with British consulate officials while in Jerusalem, which would mean the government obviously did know about it. Tom Watson has sent an official request to Number 10 for clarification.

 

Edit: Also, a bit surprising that Patel was allowed to resign rather than being fired.

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1 hour ago, Maltaran said:

There are now claims that Patel met with British consulate officials while in Jerusalem, which would mean the government obviously did know about it. Tom Watson has sent an official request to Number 10 for clarification.

 

Edit: Also, a bit surprising that Patel was allowed to resign rather than being fired.

I think at this moment if someone offers to resign you take it, rather than firing them, making them pissed off, and they cross the floor, force a by-election or start talking about where the bodies are buried.

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10 hours ago, ljkeane said:

It'd probably look even more suspicious but apparently the Israelis didn't know she was keeping these meetings from the UK government so were posting pictures on instagram the whole time.

Say one thing for Priti Patel, at least she's given us a political scandal where we can enjoy the all-round incompetence (if you're trying to hold a secret meeting maybe posing for photographs isn't the best idea) but where nothing horrifically bad has happened, even if it is serious in its own way.

 

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It's more interesting from the impact on the government. The whole edifice is creaking and swaying in the wind. You're just waiting for the event that will bring the whole thing crashing to the ground.

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May goes about trying to bind her cabinet together in darkness with a trip to a suburb of Mordor:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41931063

 

 

I do find it distasteful that these disgraced cabinet ministers (except Boris) are only falling on their pen-knives instead of their swords - Garnier and Patel really ought to be out of parliament, whilst Boris ought to be out of the cabinet

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On 11/8/2017 at 1:27 PM, ljkeane said:

To be blunt, while I'm sure it's extremely worrying for her family, I don't think the extension or not of one person's jail sentence qualifies as being of massive significance relative to the responsibilities of being Foreign Secretary. Johnson should lose his job because he's really not very good at it but mistakenly saying someone was doing one innocent thing instead of the other innocent thing she was doing doesn't merit being sacked over because an oppressive regime chooses to respond in an oppressive manner.

Except that the whole point is that any minimally competent minor civil service functionary (let alone the Foreign Secretary) should and would understand that one of those things is not regarded as 'innocent' by the Iranian government, and in fact lent credibility to their lies about why Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained. It's absolutely inexplicable why Johnson said it, and even more inexplicable why he's now waffling about how he 'could have been clearer' instead of saying 'what I said was 100% wrong and I apologise for, repudiate and withdraw it'.

The government appear to have done fuck-all about getting Nazanin out of jail for a year and now they've made her situation worse. Getting UK citizens out of jail when they have been locked up unjustly by a foreign government is one of the absolutely basic functions of the Foreign Office. Here we have the Foreign Secretary fucking that up for no reason anyone can understand except incompetence and then flailing about instead of fixing it. I happen to agree that the Patel situation is more serious, but the idea that this situation is not of 'massive significance' is not the case. It is a sacking offence. Johnson will not be sacked for it, for political reasons. But he absolutely should be, unless he does something immediately to fix it, instead of bloviating about how it shouldn't make Nazanin's situation worse instead of recognising that it did.

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21 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

May goes about trying to bind her cabinet together in darkness with a trip to a suburb of Mordor:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41931063

I do find it distasteful that these disgraced cabinet ministers (except Boris) are only falling on their pen-knives instead of their swords - Garnier and Patel really ought to be out of parliament, whilst Boris ought to be out of the cabinet

Entertainingly, Penny Mordaunt is the one who lied about Turkey joining the EU and Britain not being able to veto it, so May's replaced a liar with a liar.

The Jewish Chronicle is sticking by it's story that May knew about the meeting ahead of time and added information that Number 10 instructed Patel to withhold some of that information in her discussions with the press. They are not letting go of this, and if it turns out to be true I think that would be the end of May. 

Meanwhile, Brussels have confirmed that Britain has two weeks to confirm what it's actually going to pay as part of Brexit or the December trade negotiations will be cancelled, meaning that the chances of a no-deal crash-out from the EU will be radically increased.

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New story breaking on the BBC that Gove and Johnson have patched up their differences and forged a new alliance designed to secure a hard Brexit in the face of May's preference for a more moderate arrangement. This kind of backstabbing will no doubt end well.

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18 minutes ago, Werthead said:

New story breaking on the BBC that Gove and Johnson have patched up their differences and forged a new alliance designed to secure a hard Brexit in the face of May's preference for a more moderate arrangement. This kind of backstabbing will no doubt end well.

It would be a bold move for Boris to try to force May's hand at the exact time she has a perfect pretext to sack him if she was brave enough to. Admittedly, she probably wouldn't survive long as PM if she did try to remove him, but at some point you have to wonder what the point of being PM is if you're incapable of doing anything.

In other Boris news, he apparently met Joseph Mifsud who the FBI think played a key role in the links between the Trump Campaign and the Russians, after initially denying meeting him. To be fair, his defence that he meets lots of people and doesn't remember most of them is plausible but it'll be interesting to see if any further contacts come to light.

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Boris does not care if he is sacked. In fact he probably would appreciate it. It would put him in a perfect position to take over as leader following Brexit. Option B is a 'principled' resignation if the Brexit negotiations are seen to be 'backsliding'. Either gets him away from the scene of the crime long enough to disavow responsibility for the inevitable mess, and therefore to play the saviour.

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Indeed, but that should not keep Johnson in his job to wreak more havoc. I can see why May might worry that sacking him may result in herself being toppled, but that should not change the conclusion that Boris is dangerously incompetent and needs to go. He should go and the dice can fall as they may.

ETA: Gove has "helpfully" intervened by saying "he doesn't know" why Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran.

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7 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Haha, yes. Good news, shows you can't just shout your mouth off in public without consequence. Although it never went to court though, obviously Farage realised he was going nowhere with this. 

HNH is a strange entity, getting criticised for being too left wing and too right wing at the same time!

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/hope-not-hate-chief-executive-nick-lowles-no-platformed-by-nus-for-being-islamophobic-a6881831.html

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Meanwhile there's apparently an answer to the question, why the brexiteers so desperately want to leave the EU before April. *tin foil hat mode*

ATAD has to be implemented then. ATAD stands for the European Anti Tax Avoidance Directive. Which could turn out to be quite an expensive unpleasentness for rich Brexit backers, and Tory donors.

*tin foil hat mode off*

On another note.

You kinda have to somewhat admire the chuzpe of Redwood.

Somebody has to tell him to stop talking the country down.

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David Davis seems to be living in some kind of fantasy world where the UK is "making massive compromises", when it is doing nothing of the sort.

I'm also confused at this point why there is any discussion over the UK's budget payments. Thanks to the transition period we are now effectively members of the EU until the end of this current budgetary period anyway, so we just need to pay what we would have done anyway and it's all sorted, which is exactly what we could have agreed six months ago and been having those trade talks. Losing that time on the trade talks just for a bout of intransigence designed to appease the hardcore Eurosceptics is ridiculous.

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