This tweet highlights an interview with Rishi Sunak, recorded late last night and broadcast this morning:
Once again just the same non-answer again and again on a loop. Who is advising him to do this? pic.twitter.com/rjIgInrN3E
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) June 19, 2023
Adam Bienkov of Byline Times highlights an issue with regard to Sunak's approach to the report on Johnson being debated by the Commons today. Sunak goes into what is very obviously a pre-rehearsed loop when asked about this report and, in the process, says nothing about his intentions or his opinions on this matter.
I think we have to assume that he will never say anything on the issue and that he will also find an excuse not to be in the Commons tonight when the vote takes place. I suspect that something mysteriously urgent will have come up by then that will require his attention.
Michael Gove was a little more forthcoming on Laura Kuensberg's programme yesterday. To her frustration, he was willing to applaud the committee for its work but said he would not vote on the report because he felt that a 90-day sanction was too strong. I suspect that a very large number of Tories will use the same excuse. She thought this inappropriate, and so do I.
MPs are put in parliament to have an opinion and not to sit on their hands. If they have no opinion on the duty of a minister to tell the truth then they are clearly failing to uphold the principles of Parliamentary democracy. That is the one thing that we will need to know about them when reviewing the voting tonight.
There is, however, another dimension in all this to consider. This is because these Tories still live in fear. I suspect that it is true that many of them face the risk of deselection by their local constituency parties if they vote in favour of this report. Rumour has it that many of those parties are under the control of far right-wingers. They will not vote tonight as a result to preserve their own self-interest. What that will tell us is something else. What we will really know at the end of this vote is which Tories are willing to vote on the basis of principle, and which are just cowards. The balance between the two will be very telling.
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“Tory MPs still live in fear………….many of them face the risk of deselection by their local constituency parties if they vote in favour of this report. Rumour has it that many of those parties are under the control of far right-wingers.”
So a bunch of Johnson-apparatchiks call the shots for (some/many?) elected MPs? If this is the case, then clearly the time has come for the electoral extirpation of the vile-tory party, given that (significant?) elements of it seem to be under the control of people that lack important human qualities such as empathy and take the attitude: Johnson right or wrong. Total wipe out of the vile-tories seem to be the only way to rid thr country of this odious group.
This particular Tory Party in power is so wearisome! In particular the majority of its members appear not to recognise political stability requires sufficient political equality. By this I mean that an electorate wants to be able to feel that its views about what is right and wrong are attended to. So for Tory MP’s to believe that Boris Johnson can be selfishly cavalier in observing laws he has imposed on the rest of British society simply ignores the above fundamental principle of governing.
Equally of course it applies to how you run the economy and a case in point is allowing a shallow thinking and self-centered person like Andrew Bailey, the current Bank of England governor, to run riot with many British people facing a huge blow to to their standard of living with reset mortgage rates of interest. All this to save Tory Party face that Brexit has been an economic disaster!
Talking of principles or cowardice amongst politicians is it just me that finds this latest proposed “sound bite” by a vacillating Keir Starmer uttely sickening?
“Keir Starmer to ‘throw everything’ at plan to get UK to net zero”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/18/keir-starmer-to-throw-everything-at-plan-to-get-uk-to-net-zero
Why is Starmer up in Edinburgh today? He won’t be voting, either, or taking part in the debate.
I gather he is getting back…
Flying, then. Doing a Sunak.
It seems that the Mirror found not a video, but the smoking gun. It couldn’t happen to a nicer, more deserving Political Party. They should throw a Party to celebrate; after all, its right up the Conservative’s street.
If we are going to clean the Augean stables, we should not forget the LIBOR scandal. Andy Verity, who it seems is a real journalist, has written a very good reminder of how big the problem is: ‘Whistleblowing banker who went to prison speaks out’, two days ago – but the story has been lost in the understandable public blowback from the video.
It should not be forgotten. It is too important. We are long overdue a real clean-up.
Assange is another whistleblower who has been in Belmarsh prison for 4 years as a remand prisoner who has not been convicted or sentenced.
You won’t have seen it, but on BBC Politics South yesterday one of Peter Henley’s guests was Royston Smith, MP for Southampton North, who said he would be washing his hair tonight. He also announced he would not seeking reselection. One of many, I expect, abandoning the sinking ship.
And BTW the weather, apropos a previous post, was still pretty reasonable here on the Jurassic Coast yesterday, although I did see a few spots on the windscreen.
I wonder whether, on the basis of ‘out of evil comes forth good’, Johnson might actually be the means by which the tory party is finally destroyed? He does seem to be doing his selfish, narcissistic best to revenge himself on them for having the temerity to dispense with him, at long last.
It would after all be a thoroughly deserved and long overdue fate for the tory party.
Maybe he can bring down the DM as well? A quick look at the comments section following the announcement that he was their new columnist (!!!!) had quite a few readers saying they were cancelling their subscription. Pro Johnson entires had far more down arrows than up, but the anti ones were the opposite and then some more.
I hope there are enough MPs to disagree so there is a vote on it tonight.
Tobias Ellwood changed his mind because some of his constituents told him they wouldn’t vote for him if he voted against the report or abstained.
I think voters deserve to know where their MPs stand on this.
Agreed
What a pathetic get-out.
“An ally of Boris Johnson said he would abstain from a potential vote on the privileges committee report because the high number of MPs staying away has “made a bit of a farce of it”.
Brendan Clarke-Smith, the Bassetlaw MP who had previously said he would vote against it, told Channel 4 News: “I’m not going to be voting one way or the other. I’m against the report and its recommendations.
“It’s not really right. The number of people that are in here, it’s kind of made a bit of a farce of it, I think to be honest.
“If we had a full house here and everybody was here to vote, I think you’d get a more realistic picture, but you’re not going to get that today. So really, I think I wouldn’t want to legitimise that vote today.”
He denied that support for Mr Johnson is so low that the former prime minister’s allies are abstaining to spare him embarrassment.
“I think if you actually did have a vote and I think if people were actually on the estate, I think the numbers would actually be quite decent and quite split.” ”
There were fewer people in the house for the vote on the Public Order Act last week, and there were over 400 MPs voting. They suddenly appeared from nowhere.
I am watching the debate at 20:20. I am struck by how many of the remaining Labour MPs are women. Where are the men? Or were they allowed to speak earlier,
because, after all, they are men!
I am watching it niw
It is odd, isn’t it?
Labour men seem to be reappearing, so the vote must be soon. I just hope that they have been organising so that enough people shout ‘No!’ to force a vote, even if they really agree with the report.
I noticed that poor Caroline Lucas looked as though she wanted to fall asleep at one time. They are really enjoying themselves being allowed to call Johnson a liar.
Speakers have changed, so it’s time for a vote soon, definitely.
9.30
All the Boris supporting newspapers are leading on the missing submarine. For years they have advanced his stories and campaigns with lurid headlines. Now it’s ’nuffing to do with us, gov.’
And now, as the debate is drawing to an end, it is only men speaking! It isn’t just me, is it?
No
The list tomorrow will be interesting, to see how many tories voted against Johnson. A few of us in my constituency have told our tory redwaller that if he abstains he knows what will happen at the next election. However, I have just remembered that the constituency is going to disappear anyway! I wonder if he remembers that.
So effectively a whole bunch of Tory MP’s can’t even support the idea that Johnson’s advocacy for Brexit wasn’t a pack of lies! Fair weather friends or rather chancers!
For those who want to know.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2023-06-19a.583.0
My MP didn’t vote.
Surprised that Geoffrey Cox voted in favour of the motion.
Starmer got back in time to vote, but Streeting did not vote. I wonder how he will explain that to his constituents.
A search for the word ‘liar’ gives 26 matches in 182 speeches. I could swear it felt like many more than that.
It was odd to hear it said so often