You are currently browsing the daily archive for October 2, 2019.
More news from last weekend will help put the Remainers’ tricks into better context.
BBC bias — Andrew Marr Show
The flagship Sunday morning television news programme is the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
On September 29, 2019, Marr interviewed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, followed by the Shadow (Labour’s) Education Secretary Angela Rayner.
Boris could barely get a word in edgewise, whereas Marr let Rayner speak uninterrupted:
Language humbug
The topic of language used in the Commons on Wednesday, September 25, was still a huge issue for Remainers. The media storm continued into Monday.
Here’s Gina Miller, who is leading anti-Brexit lawsuits:
Boris somehow made dirty words out of ‘humbug’ and ‘surrender’ for them last Wednesday evening.
So did Attorney General Geoffrey Cox earlier that day:
Guido Fawkes had this (emphasis in the original):
Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, just gave one of the most barnstorming speeches Guido has seen in many years:
This parliament is a dead parliament. It should no longer sit. It has no moral right to sit on these benches… This parliament is a disgrace. They could vote ‘no confidence’ at any time, but they’re too cowardly.
Guido has a feeling this one may go viral…
Indeed. Both the AG and the PM spoke eloquently — and wittily — getting their points across with aplomb.
On the other hand, at least one rebel Conservative used blunt language. Here’s Dominic Grieve:
Grieve was on Robert Peston’s ITV news show last Wednesday. It seems this is acceptable and non-hyperbolic language — as long as it comes from a Remainer:
A few days later, the Scottish equivalent of Gina Miller — another Remainer lawyer bringing similar lawsuits — let rip on the PM:
The women
As America’s Left did with Donald Trump, Britain’s Left — including notional Conservative Remainers — played up two news stories about Boris, involving women.
Jennifer Arcuri
This events in this story took place during Boris’s time as Mayor of London. It is developing and could be politically motivated, especially as Boris and the current Mayor of London Sadiq Khan trade occasional verbal jabs with each other.
It is strange that no one outside the London political bubble has heard of Jennifer Arcuri until now, when a) we are on the Brexit countdown and b) the Conservative Party Conference was starting at the time this news broke.
From the BBC (emphases mine):
It is alleged businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri received favourable treatment due to her friendship with Mr Johnson.
The prime minister was referred by the Greater London Authority on Friday.
Mr Johnson has denied any impropriety, while a government source described the referral as “politically motivated”.
The allegations regarding Mr Johnson’s friendship with technology entrepreneur Ms Arcuri first emerged last weekend in the Sunday Times.
They refer to claims that Ms Arcuri joined trade missions led by Mr Johnson when he was mayor of London and that her company received several thousand pounds in sponsorship grants.
The Greater London Authority’s monitoring officer – whose job it is to monitor the conduct of the mayor and other members – said it had written to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
It said it had referred the PM to the IOPC “so it can assess whether or not it is necessary to investigate the former mayor of London for the criminal offence of misconduct in public office”.
It added that it has recorded a “conduct matter” against Mr Johnson which happens when there is information that indicates that a criminal offence may have been committed.
But it does not mean that a criminal offence is proved in any way, the GLA’s monitoring officer added.
“The IOPC will now consider if it is necessary for the matter to be investigated.”
The reason the IOPC is involved is because the role of the mayor of London is also London’s police and crime commissioner …
Responding to the referral, No 10 said: “The prime minister, as Mayor of London, did a huge amount of work when selling our capital city around the world, beating the drum for London and the UK.
“Everything was done with propriety and in the normal way.”
Charlotte Edwardes
Charlotte Edwardes was a young columnist for The Spectator 20 years ago, at the time when Boris was the magazine’s editor.
Last weekend, she wrote her maiden article for The Sunday Times about the time the 35-year-old editor squeezed her thigh around that time. Interestingly, Ms Edwardes’s current boyfriend is the aforementioned Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor. Timing is everything:
Not surprisingly, the story made the front page of The Sunday Times, which a proud Peston retweeted:
Both the social and the political angles merit explanation.
I remember reading about The Spectator‘s parties at this time. They were legendary. Many celebrities, authors, journalists and politicians hoped for invitations to the magazine’s summer garden party and/or the Christmas lunch.
Writer Toby Young, who also wrote for the magazine when Boris was editor, remembers the atmosphere:
Toby Young might have overstated things a bit, but Boris did have a way with the ladies, so there is probably more than a germ of truth to that.
An 82-year-old lady rang The Jeremy Vine Show (Channel 5) to say she wouldn’t mind an evening out with Boris. I do not think she is an outlier, either. Again, we should consider the timing of Miss Edwardes’s revelation and wonder why she did not come forward sooner:
That tweet makes an excellent point about timing.
Here is more information:
Yes, there was a rumour that Edwardes’s colleague, Mary Wakefield, was sitting on the other side of her and supposedly remembered that Boris touched her thigh, too.
Or, perhaps not.
Interestingly, Mary Wakefield is married to Dominic Cummings, the PM’s chief adviser on Brexit:
The story annoys both Leavers and Remainers:
No. 10 denied the story, and Labour MP Paula Sherriff, who was the first to mention the late MP Jo Cox’s name last Wednesday, offered Edwardes her moral support:
At the Conservative Party conference, the PM’s father, former Conservative MEP Stanley Johnson, defended his son eloquently to Kay Burley of Sky News:
People at home were unimpressed:
Kay Burley isn’t exactly blameless, though. You can see her red hair in the photo below from an old story:
The news story surrounding the photo is about Naomi Campbell’s appearance at Uxbridge Magistrates Court in north-west London in 2008.
Naturally, reporters raced to get quotes from the model and photographers wanted photos. Mayhem ensued, as the Daily Mail reported on June 21 that year:
Sky News presenter Kay Burley clashed with a photographer during the mayhem when Naomi Campbell arrived at court yesterday.
The newscaster, 46, was apparently hit in the cheek by a camera – and was then seen with her hand around a photographer’s throat.
Given the scrum, witness accounts differed:
There were suggestions that the photographer, Kirsty Wigglesworth from the Associated Press agency, had bumped into Miss Burley and injured her badly.
A witness said: ‘We were walking in alongside Naomi and basically, Kay got whacked in the face by a photographer.
‘Kay pushed back the photographer after she had her cheekbone smashed by this person. The photographer’s aggressive behaviour was extraordinary.
But another witness, who saw the second half on the incident, said: ‘Kay Burley had her hands around the photographer’s neck. It was really, really vicious.
‘The only way the photographer stopped her was by pulling her sunglasses off.
‘She has got marks around her throat.’ It is claimed that Miss Burley and the photographer were taken to one side by the police about the incident.
Remainer news
Whilst the Conservatives are at conference in Manchester, with some MPs flying back and forth to London via helicopter because opposition benches refused to adjourn for three days, Remainers have been busy elsewhere.
Not many opposition MPs attended Monday’s afternoon session in the Commons. Speaker Bercow spent only a couple of hours before turning over the rest of the day’s proceedings to a female Deputy Speaker.
Civil servants
Civil servants are under strain after summer holidays to deliver background work on Brexit. They complained of stress earlier in the year. They’re lucky they do not work in the private sector:
Labour and Lib Dem views
Former Home Secretary Jack Straw says that, although he disapproves of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership …
… he will still vote Labour for tribal reasons.
Party before country … not surprising.
Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson plans to block Corbyn’s possible ascendancy as temporary PM:
Rebel Conservative MPs
I am disappointed to read that David Gauke, now an Independent MP, spoke at the Conservatives’ conference:
On Monday, September 30, Sky News reported that Gauke focussed on the language issue (emphases mine):
Ex-justice secretary David Gauke spoke at the Conservative conference in Manchester despite having been effectively expelled from the party – by having the Tory whip withdrawn – for voting against Boris Johnson on Brexit earlier this month.
He accused the prime minister of a “strategy that is about stoking resentment”, with Mr Johnson having recently been criticised by opposition MPs for his use of language …
“Hence we have the language of surrender, of betrayal, of collusion. Because that feeds into a strategy that is about stoking resentment, nursing grievances, provoking anger.
“It means our politics becomes debased, it means the Conservative Party becomes a much more aggressive, much more confrontational, much more divisive party …
“And we cease to follow the traditions of our great leaders. We are no longer the party of Churchill, we are more the party of Trump.”
Dominic Grieve poled up, too, although not as far as a podium. He says he received an unsettling message:
Reading out a message he received on his phone during the event, which he revealed read: “You are a foul traitor”, Mr Grieve said: “This sort of atmosphere, which is being currently – I’m sorry to say it – but bluntly encouraged by the leader of the Conservative Party… is unacceptable behaviour and it is undermining our democracy and [will] smash it up.
“We will all have to live with the consequences – not only in our constituencies but our neighbourhoods and it will extend to each one of us.”
Mr Grieve, who supports a second EU referendum and Remain, added he was “pleased” to have attended the Manchester conference despite having been advised by some not to go.
“Most people here have been rational, pleasant and engaged even when they’ve come up to disagree with me,” he said.
Alistair Burt, another rebel — and the co-author of the Benn-Burt Bill, which attempts to thwart No Deal on October 31 — insisted he was still loyal to the party:
He revealed he recently chose not to stand at the next general election as he could not recommend a no-deal Brexit, which the government insists is still a possibility on 31 October, to his North East Bedfordshire constituents.
Describing how he has been a Conservative Party member for almost 50 years – but has now had the Tory whip withdrawn – Mr Burt added: “I was also parliamentary private secretary to two Conservative leaders: Michael Howard and Iain Duncan Smith.
“I stood behind Iain Duncan Smith at one of the most difficult times in the Conservative Party’s history.
“I don’t need any lessons on loyalty from anyone in telling me what to do for the Conservative Party in the future.”
It’s not as much about the Conservative Party, Mr Burt, as it is for the nation: the 52% of Britons who voted Leave on June 23, 2016.
More to come tomorrow.
Churchmouse Campanologist 