[mattomac]

He did at least one interview last week as well

[Crabcakes]

Something Putin, something trans.

He gave a long, rambling history lecture before answering anything, and when he did they were all softball questions. And even then he appeared to be annoyed by them.

Putin isn’t stupid. But the fact he can given indulgent lectures like that isn’t a sign of strength in the sense of being a respected, admired leader. It’s a sign everyone around him is terrified of suddenly falling off of a balcony.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Another sane one gives up. Tracey Crouch.

[Abernathy]

Another sane one ? Are there really any left ?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Hmm.

Crouch was appointed as Minister for Sport, Civil Society and Loneliness in 2017, but resigned in 2018 due to a delay over the introduction of reduced limits on the stakes of fixed odds betting terminals.


Crouch was a parliamentary researcher from 1996 to 1998 before working in PR for Harcourt Public Affairs from 1999 to 2000. She returned to Westminster and held posts as chief of staff to three shadow ministers, including the shadow Home Secretary between 2003 and 2005. Crouch was then employed by the Aviva insurance company where she was the head of public affairs between 2005 and 2010.

Rose without trace.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Don't think that's a bad career really. Her resignation in 2018 had a lot of coverage, and forced a (very welcome) change of policy. Don't know if she's been offered a job under the clownshows since, but I know she's had cancer in that time.

Her APPG work reflects fairly well on her too- dementia and alcohol misuse aren't jollies like lots of these are. All right, she also chairs one on athletics, which might get the odd ticket to Crystal Palace, but it's a longstanding interest.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I see that the Met have dropped heir investigation into Rosindell. (Rape, indecent assault, the usual). 'Insufficient evidence to guarantee a conviction'.

Par for the course, but I would have like to have seen this one sent to court for a jury's opinion, not that of the Commissioner of the Met.

Isn't that why we bother to have courts, judges and juries?

[Watchman]

I assumed it didn’t pass the CPS test

[Tubby Isaacs]

I assumed it didn’t pass the CPS test

Sounds like the Police took the decision that it wasn't worth even sending to the CPS. That must happen all the time.

[Watchman]

Thought they only did that for serving officers

[Abernathy]

Rosindell is such a notoriously disgusting individual that it's hard to believe that the charges on which he was arraigned were unfounded.

He is, precictably, declaring that he has been “totally exonerated”,but I’m not convinced.

[Tubby Isaacs]

And another Trumper. John Hayes.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He's got away with this because the Commissioner decided he didn't know the rules. That's very lucky, I reckon.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Ridiculous.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I mean,, I thought the principle of declaring conflicts of interest was fairly well established. I can find a reference to declaring interest for family from 2015. I would think it's probably older than that.

[Bones McCoy]

Thought they only did that for serving officers

And, of course it's an Establishment Stitch up when Starmer's been pictured having a pint.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Tory thinktanker (Seb Payne's lot) here with a winning argument. I think the argument for universal free school meals is overdone- they're positive, but so are lots other things that you could do with the money, and I don't appreciate Khan dumping costs on boroughs. But come on...

[Tubby Isaacs]

This paragraph is a zinger.

Each of these policies might make sense on their own. But together they fundamentally shift the burden from parents and families to schools and the state. Undermining the norm of parental responsibility has very real consequences. A King’s College London study found that the proportion of Brits who think that it was important for children to learn obedience at home has fallen from 50 per cent in 1998 to just 11 per cent today – lower than all but four other countries. The underperformance of white working class students and the relative success of ethnic minority students is driven by one common cause: parents, and their attitudes to discipline and education.

Dubious survey- you could easily interpret that as meaning "do what everyone tells you unthinkingly". That would indeed not be great. Put it in terms of discipline at school, which is what he's doing here, and you'd doubtless get far more than 11%. Pathetic crude comparison between ethnic minorities and white working class too.

What has any of this got to do with free school meals anyway? You could be his very ideal of good parents and support universal free school meals, because you like the idea of the kids eating together and it will save you time from making sandwiches or whatever. But hey, it's a slippery slope if you're a libertarian.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is absolutely mad. Sunak- Labour has no plan. Hunt- Labour is copying our plan.

[mattomac]

Ah back to chaos again….