[satnav]

Charles Moore wrote an article in the Telegraph yesterday claiming that Paterson had been persecuted because he played a key role in the Brexit campaign. Apparently other key Brexiteers have also faced similar injustices. Clearly it hasn't occurred to Moore that many of the MPs who backed Brexit were spivs and chancers who believed that they were exempt from the laws that other people manage to abide by.

[Nigredo]

Charles Moore is a ridiculous man writing for a ridiculous publication.

[Youngian]

Charles Moore is a ridiculous man writing for a ridiculous publication.

Cut from the same cloth as Rees-Mogg, he'd be an ignored dim Kipper pub bore if it wasn't for his expensive Etonian polish.
He does have some good anecdotes though. Like Thatcher in Salzburg learning that Chancellor Kohl was there on holiday so requested an hour long meeting. After 20 minutes lecturing Kohl about German reunification and the EU with her dazzling knowledge of European history, an assistant rushed in to tell Helmut important matters of state must be attended to. Thatch went for a walk around the city only to see Kohl in a cafe eating cake and reading the paper.

[mattomac]

Thatcher must have been a massive bore.

In general I’m not referencing her in this.

[Youngian]

Thatcher must have been a massive bore.

In general I’m not referencing her in this.

You bet. Researched a lot about Thatcher and Europe for an MA module where I came across the Moore anecdote. Learned to play the game impressively in her early years of securing the rebate. But lost the plot post Cold War and yes other leaders took the piss out of her rotten. Had became a joke figure. Tragic for the country but on a personal level you have to not feel for her.

[kreuzberger]

Surely I have got this all backside foremost. Surely this is a poorly 'shopped piss take. No?

[mattomac]

“I call app Britain”

[Tubby Isaacs]

A slightly below the radar awful MP. As well as announcing she's voting against the unanimous cross party and lay member report on Owen Paterson, there's this.

The BBC's OK to interview know nothings like Farage, but it can't interview a retired diplomat if she says Brexit is bad? I dunno, maybe snooty out of touch "Brexit bashing expat" Alex read the OBR?

[mattomac]

I hadn’t realised they had become the Republican Party but they have.

Why argue the points put across instead of using pointless insults and some rather dubious stuff about knowing what the people want. When start speaking about the public as large you evidently end up looking stupid.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Her own government still have Alex Hall Hall's page up. To be honest, I've seen people with less foreign affairs experience. I can't vouch for her personally, but I can imagine she has a few international acquaintances phone her up and say "Alex, what the heck is going on over there?"

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/al ... -hall-hall

Biography
2013 Tbilisi Her Majesty’s Ambassador
2011 to 2013 maternity leave
2009 to 2011 Bogota, Deputy Head of Mission
2007 to 2008 maternity leave
2006 to 2007 New Delhi, Counsellor and Head of Political Section
2004 to 2006 FCO, Head of Human Rights, Democracy and Good Governance Department
2002 to 2004 secondment to US State Department
2001 to 2002 Washington, Head of Press Office and embassy spokesperson
1999 to 2001 Washington, First Secretary (Latin America, Caribbean and Overseas Territories)
1998 to 1999 FCO, Head of Middle East Peace Process Section
1997 to 1998 FCO, Policy Planning Department
1995 to 1997 secondment to Cabinet Office, European Secretariat
1993 to 1995 FCO, Head of Humanitarian Affairs, UN Department
1989 to 1993 Bangkok, Second Secretary (Political and Press)
1988 to 1989 SOAS, full-time language training (Thai)
1987 to 1988 FCO, Desk Officer for Thailand, Burma and Laos
1986 Joined FCO

[Tubby Isaacs]

I also quite like howBannerman's offended by the idea the UK might have lost trust with other governments recently...

[Watchman]

Not big, not clever; but basically they are a load of cunts

[Cyclist]

Not just cunts, but shamelessly corrupt cunts

MPs have voted to shelve a recommendation from the standards committee for the former Tory minister Owen Paterson to be suspended from the Commons for 30 days for breaking the rules banning paid lobbying. This is the first time since the second world war that the Commons has rejected a recommendation from its own disciplinary committee to suspend an MP for misconduct, and critics claim the vote could dismantle the standards regime that has been in place for MPs since the cash for questions scandal in the 1990s. A committee is now being set up to consider a new system, and to decide whether the Paterson case needs to be reviewed, but the opposition parties say they will boycott it - which means it may never get off the ground. (The amendment pased today says it has to include opposition MPs.) Sir Keir Stamer says that this amounts to corruption and that Boris Johnson - who took the unusual step of ordering Tory MPs to vote down the standards committee report - is the source of the “rot”. (See 5.40pm.)


https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/li ... y-findings

[kreuzberger]

When you witness the anger and outrage caused today by the tories' antics, and remember that they will do nothing, nothing, to sanction police bad behaviour, those dots begin to join themselves.

Moreover, Patterson is a man of precious little importance, so it begs the question as to why they would risk so much for someone with one of the safest seats and whose downfall would otherwise pass without significant comment.

They're up to something.

[Tubby Isaacs]

cf Patrick Mercer, who resigned his seat himself and was never heard from again in 2013.

There doesn't always have to be a cunning plan, but I'd take a guess that either a few bigger fish are in the firing line, or they saw a chance to get rid of lobbying rules which the others find a nuisance.

[Bones McCoy]

When you witness the anger and outrage caused today by the tories' antics, and remember that they will do nothing, nothing, to sanction police bad behaviour, those dots begin to join themselves.

Moreover, Patterson is a man of precious little importance, so it begs the question as to why they would risk so much for someone with one of the safest seats and whose downfall would otherwise pass without significant comment.

They're up to something.

I think they want to establish precedent.
Being "on the take" is just one of the privileges of power.

It's important to get the test case aside with a backbencher.
That way when all Hancock and Harding's dodgy deals come to light it'll be.

"The usual punishment Sir?"
"Yes Jeeves, another sheeky Hennessy."

[Malcolm Armsteen]

(John Yorke Denham FRSA (born 15 July 1953) is an English Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Southampton Itchen from 1992 to 2015. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills from 2007 to 2009 and as the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2009 to 2010.)

[Tubby Isaacs]

Frontbench Tory MP abstains and sacked.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Fuck me. Didn't he accept that he'd done some things wrong before?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Clearly the cause of honesty costs dearly in the Conservative lobbying firm.