[Bones McCoy]

[satnav]

When Geoffrey Cox was Attorney General he never appeared to be the sharpest knife in the knife drawer so you have to wonder if lucrative work he has picked up over the last 18 months were down to his legal skills or down to his government connections.

[kreuzberger]

When Geoffrey Cox was Attorney General he never appeared to be the sharpest knife in the knife drawer so you have to wonder if lucrative work he has picked up over the last 18 months were down to his legal skills or down to his government connections.

Boom! Penny drop.

Is he a stupid person's idea of a high-powered lawyer?

[Youngian]

And full Alan B’stard marks for sodding off to the Caribbean in the winter during the pandemic. While most decent MPs were visible doing their bit for the community.

[satnav]

When I see Geoffrey Cox on TV I'm always think of this bloke from Dads army?



At least with Cox we know what the 'W' stands for.

[Tubby Isaacs]

When Geoffrey Cox was Attorney General he never appeared to be the sharpest knife in the knife drawer so you have to wonder if lucrative work he has picked up over the last 18 months were down to his legal skills or down to his government connections.

In fairness, he earned a lot before he was Attorney General too..

[mattomac]

When Geoffrey Cox was Attorney General he never appeared to be the sharpest knife in the knife drawer so you have to wonder if lucrative work he has picked up over the last 18 months were down to his legal skills or down to his government connections.

Boom! Penny drop.

Is he a stupid person's idea of a high-powered lawyer?

Like the Tories version of Mayor Rudy?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Haven't read it, so not sure Tom Hunt (Con, Ipswich) is talking dogshit. Except that I kind of am sure.

[The All New KevS]

Your East Anglian correspondent writes:

Ipswich is of course, my home town, and the family all still live there, so I'm acutely aware of going ons down there, and it's generally agreed that Hunt is possibly the worst MP the town has had, constantly saying "edgy" and "non-woke" things - it's blatantly obvious that he's trying to attract the eye of the party hierarchy so he can advance his career. Apparently any real local concerns that people may have are quite often brushed aside, so he can prepare his next Mailite proclamation such as this.

I think he'll be out on his ear next time because of that anyway, the town seems to flip from one party to the other nearly every election. It's his own fault - the last Tory MP there was Gummer the Younger, and credit where it's due, he did turn out to be a good MP for the town, championing local issues.

[Youngian]

Tom’s dad Bill Hunt is a Tory big wig councillor in Cambs. Also an obnoxious tosser and not the brightest bulb, either.

[Cyclist]

A long and horrific read. England in the 21st century.

Undocumented migrants reveal they have been forced to avoid the Covid vaccine, dodge medical help when ill, give up jobs and take up more cramped accommodation during the pandemic, in a study that suggests the virus exacerbated the “deadly effects” of the government’s “hostile environment” immigration policies.

Almost half of the group said explicitly that they were afraid of trying to obtain the vaccine because of their immigration status, or were hesitant because they did not have enough information about it. Several said that they had to buy their own PPE to ensure they could keep working. One was eating just one proper meal per day to save money after losing work, while another volunteered for a charity in exchange for hot meals.

The study, published by Kanlungan Filipino Consortium – a charity working to empower Filipino, east- and south-east Asian migrants – and backed by the British Academy, followed a group of 14 Filipino migrants, many of whom worked in care and domestic work. They were interviewed in spring 2020 and again this year to record how their immigration status was affecting their ability to cope during the pandemic.

One said that he had been asked for his passport to register with a GP – not a legal requirement. His wife, also an irregular migrant who works as a carer, had flu-like symptoms, but took paracetamol and orange juice instead of seeking professional help. Another migrant described shaking every time her phone rang after she tested positive for Covid-19, as she was afraid of giving her address to NHS authorities. “Definitely we’re scared,” she said. “Every move that we do, we’re scared.”...


...“Hostile environment” refers to a series of measures aimed at making life harder for people to get services and remain in the UK if they cannot prove they have the right to be in the country. It was renamed the “compliant environment” by Sajid Javid while he was home secretary, but its various policies make it harder to take up employment, rent property, open bank accounts, get driving licences, and access welfare and public services...


...The Home Office said: “The Government recognises the unprecedented impact of Covid-19 and that is why we acted decisively to ensure we support everyone through this pandemic. Many of the wide-ranging Covid-19 measures we put in place were available to migrants with no recourse to public funds, including the coronavirus job retention scheme, self-employed income support scheme, and protections for renters from evictions.

“The UK has a proud history of welcoming those in need. Our new nationality and borders bill will create an immigration system that is fair but firm, welcoming those in genuine need but cracking down on those who come to the UK illegally.”

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tudy-shows

Our government implements policies that deliberately make it hard for certain people to get what they need, create an atmosphere so poisonous those people are too scared to even try to get what they need, and then tell us about our"proud history of welcoming those in need."

Utter fucking cunts, the lot of them.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Utter fucking cunts, the lot of them.

Which is why the Tories have followed a policy, since 2010, of replacing neutral civil servants with their own followers, certainly at all executive levels.

[Watchman]

But I thought “immigrants” of various levels of status are the reason Daily Mail readers cannot get in to see their GP

[Tubby Isaacs]

Cuddly modernizing Cameron.

[Youngian]

I’d be in favour of less councillors but full time on a proper wage. Hopefully less pricks like this make the grade

[Dalem Lake]

I’d be in favour of less councillors but full time on a proper wage. Hopefully less pricks like this make the grade

Anybody fancy a bet on this guy claiming he was "hacked"?

[Tubby Isaacs]

He's apologized for a tweet "sent from my account". Or as most people would put it, "by me".

[Bones McCoy]

He's apologized for a tweet "sent from my account". Or as most people would put it, "by me".

Typical Tories.
Love taking the free stuff.
Won't own their shit.

[Cyclist]

Here are some extracts from Angela Rayner’s speech at the opening of the debate on Randox Covid contracts.

Rayner said it was important to establish if Owen Paterson played a role in lobbying for Randox, the firm employing him, to get Covid contracts. She said:
We already know that Randox was awarded £600m of taxpayers’ money without a tender.

We already know that Randox were awarded a second £347m contract having failed to deliver on a previous £133m contract.

We already know this decision was made after a meeting by conference call involving the then member for North Shropshire and health minister Lord Bethell.

What we don’t know is what happened in those meetings. Who else was present, what was discussed, and what was decided.

We don’t know what was said in any correspondence before or after, including through private email accounts or phones. We don’t know why or how these contracts were awarded, what rules might have been broken, and what role the member for North Shropshire’s lobbying played in government decisions.

She called for an investigation into the latest revelations about how 47 companies received Covid contracts after applying through a VIP line, often after a reference from a senior Tory.
We know that those companies that got into the VIP lane were 10 times more likely to win a contract than anyone else.

Many did not, as ministers’ have belatedly admitted, go through the so-called eight stage process of diligence.

We now know how they got into the VIP lane in the first place.

Not a single one of them had been referred by a politician of any political party other than the Conservative party.

Of the 47 successful companies revealed yesterday, the original source of referral was a Conservative politician or adviser in 19 cases.

She mocked the account given by Lord Bethell when told he would have to disclose what was on his phone about Covid contacts. She said:
Lord Bethell was told his mobile phone would be searched for documents. Just weeks later, he said that he had replaced that phone.

First, he claimed his phone had been lost, then he said it was broken and then he said he had given away to a family member.

Finally, nearly a year on, he remembered that he had his phone all along. But, unfortunately, he was in the habit of deleting his entire WhatsApp history and suddenly the relevant messages may have been lost.

And, you know what, he said the problem, and I am not making this up, was exacerbated by having two phones. A business one as well as his official one.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... d4b8c1b252

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[Boiler]

Interesting one here from Fenton at https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2021/1 ... -isnt.html

But then came a caution from Sam Coates of Sky News.

“Tory MPs I’ve spoken to privately today and last night are very doubtful we ever actually end up with the sort of second jobs reforms promised yesterday, having seen the government motion which sets up for more talks until Jan 31”. Ah, the old kicking the can down the road via the long grass ploy! Plus one word was missing from the proposals.

No “paid consultancy”? Ooh look, a loophole. Or rather, more than one loophole. What would stop someone instead donating to the Tory Party, and then the MP concerned becoming, oh I dunno, a paid “deputy chairman”? Or, more likely, ensuring that the company wishing to purchase the services of an MP had a board of suitably remunerated directors, which the aforesaid MP could be invited to join? Wha-Hey! Job Done!!