A thread to catalogue the eloquence, dignity, diplomacy and wisdom of Boris Johnson

[billo]

So, he didn't give the lady preferential treatment. I can imagine a valid legal argument being he'd rodger anything with a pulse, so perhaps the law is correct?

From what I heard on the radio he did not give her preferential treatment but those around him did as they thought she was his main squeeze at the time, so these sycophants (Guto Harri, we are looking in your direction) are the ones to blame for assuming a leg up is needed after a leg over

 

[SteveS1]

He didn't give her preferential treatment, but he got her preferential treatment either consciously or not. It's a form of connection that an honest person** would have either stood away from, or removed the possibility of others feeling obliged to treat her differently.

** spot the flaw.

 

[droodzilla]

Full IOPC statement here:

https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/ne...n-misconduct-public-office-while-mayor-london

While there was no evidence that Mr Johnson influenced the payment of sponsorship monies or participation in trade missions, there was evidence to suggest that those officers making decisions about sponsorship monies and attendance on trade missions thought that there was a close relationship between Mr Johnson and Ms Arcuri, and this influenced their decision-making. “

Our review established there was a close association between Mr Johnson and Ms Arcuri and there may have been an intimate relationship.

The GLA code of conduct which applied at the time meant that, even if the relationship was intimate, Mr Johnson had no obligation to include Ms Arcuri’s business interests in his own register of interests.

However, under the broader Nolan Principles of Public Life, our review suggests it would have been wise for Mr Johnson to have declared this as a conflict of interest, and a failure to do so could have constituted a breach of these broader principles contained within the GLA 2012 Code of Conduct. As this does not amount to a potential criminal offence, this is now a matter for the GLA to consider.

A very British tale of corruption.

 

[Tony L]

Given where the goal posts are it was always going to be impossible to get this one to stick. Unfortunately we live in a country that is so fundamentally corrupt a multi-millionaire financial speculator such as Jacob Rees Mogg can masquerade as an MP. A man who makes his millions by shorting the stock market, avoiding UK taxation etc, yet his highly privileged position with regard to government policy is not considered ‘insider trading’ etc. He is far from an outlier too, so many MPs have far better paid first jobs on the boards of corporations, PFI-funded companies etc.

 

[Seanm]

Full IOPC statement here:

https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/ne...n-misconduct-public-office-while-mayor-london

A very British tale of corruption.

Yep. No one needs to be told what to do because everybody already, instinctively knows. See also: herd immunity strategy, care home massacre.

 

[Nero]

Given where the goal posts are it was always going to be impossible to get this one to stick. Unfortunately we live in a country that is so fundamentally corrupt a multi-millionaire financial speculator such as Jacob Rees Mogg can masquerade as an MP. A man who makes his millions by shorting the stock market, avoiding UK taxation etc, yet his highly privileged position with regard to government policy is not considered ‘insider trading’ etc. He is far from an outlier too, so many MPs have far better paid first jobs on the boards of corporations, PFI-funded companies etc.

Twas ever thus. I saw it on Poldark

 

[tonerei]

Given where the goal posts are it was always going to be impossible to get this one to stick. Unfortunately we live in a country that is so fundamentally corrupt a multi-millionaire financial speculator such as Jacob Rees Mogg can masquerade as an MP. A man who makes his millions by shorting the stock market, avoiding UK taxation etc, yet his highly privileged position with regard to government policy is not considered ‘insider trading’ etc. He is far from an outlier too, so many MPs have far better paid first jobs on the boards of corporations, PFI-funded companies etc.

I go back to all the clappers on a Thursday. Get off your ass and start voting for people who might change that system

 

[Tony L]

I go back to all the clappers on a Thursday. Get off your ass and start voting for people who might change that system

It is repugnant the way that well meaning act (imported from Italy IIRC) has been so cynically manipulated by our government and the far-right press as a deflection tactic away from a healthcare system they so underfunded and eroded for over a well decade.

Yesterday’s u-turn was so telling in that the day before the multimillionaire from birth Boris Johnson was a) quite happy to stand up and say the low-wage immigrants who saved his life should pay for their own healthcare should they have become ill fulfilling that role, and b) was so lazy and self-absorbed he didn’t even get the cost to the state figure right (he grossly over-stated it). Why people vote for shit like that is beyond me.

 

[The Far North]

I go back to all the clappers on a Thursday. Get off your ass and start voting for people who might change that system

The anonymous NHS doctor in the guardian agrees with you https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/21/nhs-doctor-enough-people-clapping

The NHS is not a charity and it isn’t staffed by heroes. It has been run into the ground by successive governments and now we are reaping the rewards of that neglect, on the background of the public health impact of years of rampant inequality in the UK.

 

[Seanm]

I go back to all the clappers on a Thursday. Get off your ass and start voting for people who might change that system

The system - and this is going to sound a bit cranky - incorporates the news media, which is the only real means we have of creating widespread public awareness about the nature of the system. So if the system doesn't negatively impact on you personally in a fairly immediate way there's no real reason to believe there's a problem.

You just need to look at the reporting yesterday of the Arcuri scandal. Here's the BBC, which is the single most popular and most trusted source of news in the UK:

And this was a day after it was reported that Tory donors were starting to rebel against the government because they hadn't yet got the peerages they were promised in return for their donations. It was mentioned in passing in an article on the Tories being short of cash:

Every journalist working in the field knows all about this and they understand the implications perfectly, but they also understand that it's not in their interests to talk about it, so...

We know what to call this when it happens in Russia but British people have a really hard time dealing with the fact that they have one of the most corrupt and useless media systems in the world. Guarantee someone will call this a conspiracy theory. The point is that there doesn't need to be a conspiracy because all of this is right out in the open.

 

[roman]

The system - and this is going to sound a bit cranky - incorporates the news media, which is the only real means we have of creating widespread public awareness about the nature of the system. So if the system doesn't negatively impact on you personally in a fairly immediate way there's no real reason to believe there's a problem.

You just need to look at the reporting yesterday of the Arcuri scandal. Here's the BBC, which is the single most popular and most trusted source of news in the UK:

And this was a day after it was reported that Tory donors were starting to rebel against the government because they hadn't yet got the peerages they were promised in return for their donations. It was mentioned in passing in an article on the Tories being short of cash:

Every journalist working in the field knows all about this and they understand the implications perfectly, but they also understand that it's not in their interests to talk about it, so...

We know what to call this when it happens in Russia but British people have a really hard time dealing with the fact that they have one of the most corrupt and useless media systems in the world. Guarantee someone will call this a conspiracy theory. The point is that there doesn't need to be a conspiracy because all of this is right out in the open.

The British people are boiled frogs. Media lies and manipulation are so much part of our lives many don't know any different.

I wish there was greater curiosity and awareness but the stranglehold has been in place for so long how are some people to know any better.

I regard this as the single biggest obstacle to equality, transparency and justice in the UK. Imagine what could be achieved if the media was a force for good.

 

[TheDecameron]

Someone described it perfectly- we have a most versatile Home Secretary. She can clap foreign NHS workers with one hand while flicking them Vs with the other one.

 

[droodzilla]

Another example of very British corruption here:

Note how Sebastian Payne (a Financial Times journalist) reports this as if it's an entirely normal state of affairs.

Spotted by flying rodent on Twitter: https://twitter.com/flying_rodent/status/1263099981075869698

Edit: and I now see seanm beat me to this one!

 

[Nero]

Shock horror. Bribers took Johnson at his word. Suckers.

 

[TheDecameron]

The British people are boiled frogs. Media lies and manipulation are so much part of our lives many don't know any different.

I wish there was greater curiosity and awareness but the stranglehold has been in place for so long how are some people to know any better.

I regard this as the single biggest obstacle to equality, transparency and justice in the UK. Imagine what could be achieved if the media was a force for good.

Well, the greatest corrupting force in the ‘Anglosphere’ must be reaching the end of the road now. It will be a genuine cause for celebration when the day comes and it’ll be interesting to see if the sons announce a new way of doing business. No one even a decade ago could have imagined the vision of hell on earth that is Trump-Fox, the British simply inured to The Sun over decades with all attempts to rein it in bought off in Westminster.

 

[TheDecameron]

Another example of very British corruption here:

Note how Sebastian Payne (a Financial Times journalist) reports this as if it's an entirely normal state of affairs.

Spotted by flying rodent on Twitter: https://twitter.com/flying_rodent/status/1263099981075869698

Payne is an even cruder apologist for the Tory Party than Keunsberg. Do you see his twitter pic? The car parked up on the pavement while he poses on it? Says it all really. Probably parks it across two disabled bays in case it gets scratched.

 

[Seanm]

The British people are boiled frogs. Media lies and manipulation are so much part of our lives many don't know any different.

I wish there was greater curiosity and awareness but the stranglehold has been in place for so long how are some people to know any better.

I regard this as the single biggest obstacle to equality, transparency and justice in the UK. Imagine what could be achieved if the media was a force for good.

Yes, absolutely. I'm very pessimistic. And one of the problems is that it's difficult to get the left to take the idea of media reform seriously. Typical Labour response to the last election - essentially a more or less co-ordinated anti-Labour operation mobilising every single section of the media - was on the one hand to shout about BBC bias and on the other to invest in the idea that a more professional leadership could make the media work for us. Delusional. Corbyn did set out quite a radical program of reform in an Alternative McTaggart lecture but journalists squealed like stuck pigs at the very suggestion that the British system was anything less than a shining beacon of impartiality and rigour and it all just fizzled out.

 

[tiggers]

While this (running - as ever in pfm) commentary on the corruption in the media is all true I am finding the calls from the usual protagonists in pfm's Off Topic mafia for media reform a bit hard to take. When the country spent millions on Lord Leveson's report into the press and then decided to ignore the recommendations that would have been the bedrock for wider media reform and independently assessed accountability some of us, through the likes of Hacked Off, campaigned vehemently for their implementation. I myself attended multiple events, became such a nuisance to my then MP that he literally ran away from our last meeting and spent an inordinate amount of my time canvassing for support from the more general public by various means. In my experience the latter was generally met with extreme apathy and sometimes outright hostility.

Now I sit here reading all the above and wondering just how many of those commenting in this way did anything at all (other than posting on an Internet forum that few people read) when Cameron's government decided to ignore Leveson's recommendations completely. I suspect the answer is likely, in most cases, to be very little. You reap what you sow!!

 

[TheDecameron]

Pray for us.

 

[roman]

Yes, absolutely. I'm very pessimistic. And one of the problems is that it's difficult to get the left to take the idea of media reform seriously. Typical Labour response to the last election - essentially a more or less co-ordinated anti-Labour operation mobilising every single section of the media - was on the one hand to shout about BBC bias and on the other to invest in the idea that a more professional leadership could make the media work for us. Delusional. Corbyn did set out quite a radical program of reform in an Alternative McTaggart lecture but journalists squealed like stuck pigs at the very suggestion that the British system was anything less than a shining beacon of impartiality and rigour and it all just fizzled out.

Yes that's the problem . The media will destroy anyone proposing media reform.

I keep hearing media influence is on the wane, and whilst sales of print media have fallen and digital platforms continue to grow, I see little has changed. It feels worse than ever but it's hard to be sure.