Off Topic Politics Thread

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St Badger said:
Says it all about the standards of British politics. Get caught out lying or breaking the rules? Change the Ministerial Code!
You know, people knew Johnson was a liar before they voted him into power.
What does that tell you about the standards of the people who facilitated his being elected PM?


BORIS Johnson last night watered down the Ministerial Code and denied his ethics adv-iser more investigatory powers.

Under the Prime Minister’s new version of the Code, ministers can break rules without resigning.

Instead, they could face having to make a public apology, “remedial action” or “removal of ministerial salary for a period”.

Mr Johnson’s new version of ministers’ rules comes just days after Sue Gray’s report slammed No10’s leadership over Partygate.

The PM currently faces an investigation into whether he lied to the Commons – a Code breach.

Previously, it was expected that any minister who broke the Code should offer their resignation.

The revised Code no longer mentions the key principles of integrity, objectivity, accountability, transparency, honesty and leadership in the public interest.

A rule stating ministers must “uphold the very highest standards of propriety” has also gone. And the PM denied his ethics advisor Lord Geidt the power to launch probes independently
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Operation save big dog is going swimmingly and is consuming all of the government's time meanwhile the country is going to the dogs. I am more disappointed with the Tory MPs who are standing back while Johnson wrecks the country and not stopping him.
 
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Just when you think that this despicable man could not sink any lower he shamelessly confounds us even further.

Acting as he did during lockdown, compounded by his support from most Tory M.P.s has resulted in several friends to declare that, should there be a future lockdown, they would ignore government advice not to visit relatives. Johnson is not only selfish but he's also dangerous.
 
Le Tissier's Laces said:
So much this. The NATO argument is a complete straw man, though I do accept some of Ian's points on the rest (even if I don't wholly agree with them).

In situations like this, the best thing one can do, is hunt out what Max Hastings has to say - he knows more of military history and wars than all of the rest of us put together, times a hundred.
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LLT

I love history albeit I am not really into military history as such. I tend to switch off my interest after 1918 but I am familiar with Max Hastings, both as a journalist and as a historian because I used to regularly buy his books for my Dad at Christmas. He is actually quite a divisive historian and if you read publications like the BBC History magazine you will realise that Hastings has not been exempt from controversy. Some of his conclusions have been questioned by other historians working in his field but perhaps more worrying in his stance regarding the treatment of Kenyan civillians by British soldiers in the 1950s / 60s when he attempted to deny witin the last ten years the attrocities carried out by our military such as castration of prisoners. The Americans had been aware of this for a very long time and the topic was eventually the subject of a book by an American journalist the contents of which were rigorously denied by Hastings when he confronted her on Channel Four news. Subsequently, a number of the victims brought their cases to the courts in Britain where they were vindicated as received compensation - the government of the time effectively acknowledging than British soldiers had been involved in war crimes in the Post-War period. I found that Hasting's position on this really shattered his credibility. If you like. , he was a kind of apologist for a colonial holocaust.

I think Hastings is quite a contrarian character. Some of his opinions seem to flip flop between radical ideas and others which might seem to come from another era. Like so much with history, it is probably good to read around a subject and find different persectives. My feeling is that Max Hastings likes to take a controversial view that is not always balanced.
 
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Ian Thumwood said:
LLT

I love history albeit I am not really into military history as such. I tend to switch off my interest after 1918 but I am familiar with Max Hastings, both as a journalist and as a historian because I used to regularly buy his books for my Dad at Christmas. He is actually quite a divisive historian and if you read publications like the BBC History magazine you will realise that Hastings has not been exempt from controversy. Some of his conclusions have been questioned by other historians working in his field but perhaps more worrying in his stance regarding the treatment of Kenyan civillians by British soldiers in the 1950s / 60s when he attempted to deny witin the last ten years the attrocities carried out by our military such as castration of prisoners. The Americans had been aware of this for a very long time and the topic was eventually the subject of a book by an American journalist the contents of which were rigorously denied by Hastings when he confronted her on Channel Four news. Subsequently, a number of the victims brought their cases to the courts in Britain where they were vindicated as received compensation - the government of the time effectively acknowledging than British soldiers had been involved in war crimes in the Post-War period. I found that Hasting's position on this really shattered his credibility. If you like. , he was a kind of apologist for a colonial holocaust.

I think Hastings is quite a contrarian character. Some of his opinions seem to flip flop between radical ideas and others which might seem to come from another era. Like so much with history, it is probably good to read around a subject and find different persectives. My feeling is that Max Hastings likes to take a controversial view that is not always balanced.
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I absolutely take your point, Ian - and absolutely am an advocate of getting a variety of outlooks and opinions. Everything I've seen Hastings write about the war in Ukraine though has, to my mind (and I know that has restrictions!), been spot on. There's no denying his experience and knowledge on these things, even if you may not agree regarding some points.
 
Starmer and Rayner have received questionnaires from Durham police, reference “beergate”. The same police force that wouldn’t take a retrospective look into the Cummings eyesight fiasco.
This is nothing more than a political stunt being pulled by the Tories, through another corrupt (the Met is corrupt too) force that is allied to the government.
 
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St Badger said:
Starmer and Rayner have received questionnaires from Durham police, reference “beergate”. The same police force that wouldn’t take a retrospective look into the Cummings eyesight fiasco.
This is nothing more than a political stunt being pulled by the Tories, through another corrupt (the Met is corrupt too) force that is allied to the government.
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They shouldn’t fill them in, Boris never filled his in……..rumour is none of the front benchers did.
 
Calculated risk by Biden sending Ukraine long range rockets. He's relying on Ukraine keeping its word and not using them to hit targets in Russia. But they'll certainly help in the Donbas region. God knows what will happen if a US rocket hits Russia though.
 
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