UK - England, Wales, N.Ireland, Scotland

[RTH10260]

Boris Johnson in battle for political future amid fresh evidence he misled MPs
Privileges committee document intended to help ex-PM prepare for questioning contains wealth of new information

Peter Walker and Rowena Mason
Fri 3 Mar 2023 22.24 GMT

Boris Johnson faces a battle for his future in parliament after a cross-party committee found there was significant evidence he misled MPs over lockdown parties, and that he and aides almost certainly knew at the time they were breaking rules.

The damning report includes one witness saying the then prime minister told a packed No 10 gathering in November 2020, when strict Covid restrictions were in force, that “this is probably the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now”.

Other new evidence includes a message from a No 10 official in April 2021, six months before the first reports of parties emerged, saying a colleague was “worried about leaks of PM having a piss-up – and to be fair I don’t think it’s unwarranted”.

The details came in a report from the Commons privileges committee, a seven-strong group of MPs, four of them Conservatives, which has been tasked with discovering whether Johnson misled parliament in denying any wrongdoing, and then if this was deliberate.




https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ee-inquiry

[RTH10260]

The Wall - UK edition

Rishi Sunak ‘extinguishing the right to seek refugee protection in UK’
UNHCR ‘profoundly concerned’ by bill that would allow government to criminalise, detain and deport asylum seekers

Rajeev Syal and Kiran Stacey
Tue 7 Mar 2023 20.06 GMT

Rishi Sunak’s government has been accused of “extinguishing the right to seek refugee protection in the UK” by the United Nations refugee agency after the introduction of a contentious new law to stop small boats from crossing the Channel.

After Suella Braverman was forced to admit that the illegal migration bill was “more than 50%” likely to break human rights laws, the UNHCR said it was “profoundly concerned” by the bill’s provisions, which give the government the right to criminalise, detain and deport asylum seekers, saying it would be a “clear breach of the refugee convention”.

Unveiling the plans to MPs earlier, Braverman said the law places a legal duty on the government to detain and deport nearly all those who arrive “irregularly”, such as via small boats in the Channel.

There would be constraints on the rights of asylum seekers to use a judicial review to challenge decisions, she said on Tuesday, as ministers attempt to bypass the legal wrangles that have prevented the implementation of plans to send people to Rwanda.

The bill will also introduce an annual cap, to be decided by parliament, on the number of refugees the UK will offer sanctuary to through safe and legal routes – but only once the boats have been stopped.



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... mall-boats

[RTH10260]

finally free from all that EU red tape ....

UK to import high-carbon beef and low-welfare pork in trade deals
Exclusive: Tory party fears a revolt among MPs over post-Brexit agreements with Canada and Mexico

Helena Horton Environment reporter
Thu 9 Mar 2023 10.39 GMT

Post-Brexit trade deals with Canada and Mexico will include imports of high-carbon beef and low-welfare pork, the Guardian can reveal.

There are fears there could be a Conservative party revolt, with the former environment secretary George Eustice raising concerns over low welfare standards for pigs in Canada, and an influential group of Tory MPs and peers gearing up to oppose the deals.

The deals also go against the advice of the Climate Change Committee, which wrote to the farming minister, Mark Spencer, after he refused to rule out Mexican beef imports. The committee said the UK’s carbon targets could be “compromised by a decision to allow the importation of meat with a higher carbon footprint than our own”.




https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... rade-deals

[Sam the Centipede]

So, what happens to UK pork producers? If they drop their standards to match those of the imports, assuming that results in a cost saving for the producers, their product will certainly not be exportable to the EU, which insists on high welfare standards.

Well done Brexiters! You've screwed another part of the British economy!

[Ben-Prime]

So, what happens to UK pork producers? If they drop their standards to match those of the imports, assuming that results in a cost saving for the producers, their product will certainly not be exportable to the EU, which insists on high welfare standards.

Well done Brexiters! You've screwed another part of the British economy!

That would be a complete shame, and I say this as an American who has enjoyed the products of yummy British agribusiness for the past two years and will miss it all horribly when my assignment here ends in a couple of months.

[RTH10260]

Thérèse Coffey’s ‘eat turnips’ message leaves bitter taste after UK’s biggest grower gives up
Environment secretary’s response to salad shortages suggests she was unaware vegetable farmer – in her constituency – was forced to quit due to costs

James Tapper
Sat 18 Mar 2023 14.00 GMT

It wasn’t a cunning plan, but Thérèse Coffey sparked more interest in turnips than anyone since Blackadder when she suggested that people might eat them instead of tomatoes.

The environment secretary’s response to salad shortages attracted more ridicule than Baldrick – even from Vladimir Putin, who suggested last week that sanctions against Russia had backfired on the west. Turnips are good but they’ll probably have to get them from us, he said.

Putin’s remarks had a thin veneer of truth. Although Coffey said people should “cherish” specialist British produce, she seemed unaware that Britain’s biggest turnip grower was in her constituency – and had stopped growing them months earlier.



https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/m ... r-gives-up

[Dave from down under]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-22/ ... /102127222

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has released his defence to a parliamentary Privileges Committee investigation into whether he misled parliament when he denied parties had been held at No 10 Downing Street during Britain's COVID-19 lockdown.

Key points:
Mr Johnson is due to be questioned by MPs on Wednesday afternoon
He says he told parliament what he believed to be true at the time
Both he and Rishi Sunak have been fined for attending a party during the lockdown

Mr Johnson admitted he misled parliament when he gave an account to the House of Commons following media reports that several staff gatherings had been held during strict periods of lockdown, a scandal dubbed 'partygate'.

He had told parliament that the rules and guidance that regulated gatherings during the lockdown was followed at all times.

"I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged, that there was no party, and that no COVID rules were broken," Mr Johnson said in December 2021.

He issued an apology to his colleagues, but remained adamant the false statements were unintentional, rather than an attempt at a cover-up which would have been "senseless and immediately self-defeating."

"I accept that the House of Commons was misled by my statements that the Rules and Guidance had been followed completely at No. 10."

[Gregg]

I find it amazing that Boris Johnson is in more trouble for having a party than half our Congress is for trying to overthrow the government. It's only just now that maybe Trump might possibly get held accountable for it.

[RTH10260]

UK - the London police force

Met police found to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic
Author of landmark report says Met can ‘no longer presume that it has the permission of the people of London to police them’

Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent
Tue 21 Mar 2023 00.01 GMT

The Metropolitan police is broken and rotten, suffering collapsing public trust and is guilty of institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia, an official report has said.

The report by Louise Casey, commissioned by the Met after one of its officers abducted Sarah Everard, taking her from from a London street in March 2021, before raping and murdering her, is one of the most damning of a major British institution .

The 363-page report details disturbing stories of sexual assaults, usually covered up or downplayed, with 12% of women in the Met saying they had been harassed or attacked at work, and one-third experiencing sexism.

Lady Casey said that the lifeblood of British policing was haemorrhaging and her report warned that “public consent is broken” with just 50% of the public expressing confidence, even before revelations about the force’s worst recent scandals.

She pinned the primary blame on its past leadership and said: “Public respect has fallen to a low point. Londoners who do not have confidence in the Met outnumber those who do, and these measures have been lower amongst black Londoners for years.

“The Met has yet to free itself of institutional racism. Public consent is broken. The Met has become unanchored from the Peelian principle of policing by consent set out when it was established.”

The report found a bullying culture, frontline officers demoralised and feeling let down by their leaders, and discrimination “baked into the system”.

Casey revealed that one Muslim officer had bacon stuffed in his boots, a Sikh officer had his beard cut, minority ethnic officers were much more likely to be disciplined or leave, and Britain’s biggest force remains disproportionately white, in a capital that is increasingly diverse.

Stop and search and use of force on powers against black people was excessive, found the report for the Met – which stops more people per head of population than any other force.

A catalogue of suffering by women included frequent abuses by senior officers, including one subjecting a female junior to repeated harassment and an indecent act. She complained and told the inquiry: “It would have probably been better to suffer in silence, but I couldn’t do that. He got away with everything, I was made to look like the liar.”




https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... sey-report

[RTH10260]

‘Draconian’ migration bill could leave tens of thousands destitute or locked up
Refugee Council figures reveal potential human and economic cost of government’s illegal migration bill

Diane Taylor
Wed 22 Mar 2023 00.01 GMT

Nearly 200,000 people, including more than 40,000 children, could be locked up or forced into destitution if the government’s controversial illegal migration bill becomes law, according to new analysis by the Refugee Council.

The charity has used government data and the numbers of asylum seekers the Home Office said it hopes to deport from the UK, to project how many people are likely to either be forcibly removed or left in limbo in the first three years of the new legislation if it becomes law, at a cost to the taxpayer of around £9bn. Home Office officials say they do not recognise these figures.

The bill promises to clamp down on asylum seekers travelling to the UK by irregular means, such as in small boats or hidden in the backs of lorries, by making all of these claims ineligible for consideration in the UK. It also gives the Home Office the power to remove children seeking asylum from the country.

Under the new rules, people seeking asylum can be detained for 28 days without the right to access a lawyer or apply for bail. Terrorism suspects can only be detained for 14 days.

When calculating the figures, Refugee Council worked on the basis that the government deports the 30,000 asylum seekers they say they hope to remove to Rwanda. So far no removals have taken place as the lawfulness of the policy is still being considered by the courts.

Even if Home Office does remove 30,000 people to Rwanda, the Refugee Council estimates that between 161,147 and 192,670 people could be left in limbo. There are currently only 3,000 spaces in immigration detention. If the majority who remain in the UK are accommodated in hotels, 1,493 hotels will be needed. There are currently 51,000 asylum seekers in 395 hotels.

The new legislation could leave tens of thousands unable to access protection they are entitled to under international law, cause a great deal of human misery, cost billions and do nothing to alleviate the asylum backlog, according to the new report.

Many of those who will be detained and deported under the new legislation are from the world’s most troubled countries, including Eritrea, Sudan, Syria and Iran, where there is no visa resettlement option available. There are resettlement schemes for Afghans escaping from the Taliban but they are limited and many Afghans are fleeing their country and travelling to the UK in small boats.

Refugee resettlement to the UK from UNHCR refugee camps is currently 75% lower than the pre-Covid level in 2019, and refugee family reunion visas are 40% lower.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... -locked-up

[Ben-Prime]

I find it amazing that Boris Johnson is in more trouble for having a party than half our Congress is for trying to overthrow the government. It's only just now that maybe Trump might possibly get held accountable for it.

He violated the culture of keeping a stiff upper lip and sacrificing. This is a crime against British identity. I'm somewhat serious about this. It's the same reason so many people here consider the Sussexes to be 'whingers'.

[Dave from down under]

Also breach Tory tradition

No kinky sex reported from the parties!

[Gregg]

I find it amazing that Boris Johnson is in more trouble for having a party than half our Congress is for trying to overthrow the government. It's only just now that maybe Trump might possibly get held accountable for it.

He violated the culture of keeping a stiff upper lip and sacrificing. This is a crime against British identity. I'm somewhat serious about this. It's the same reason so many people here consider the Sussexes to be 'whingers'.

Oh come on, Tories pissing in the face of the rules for the peasants is a tradition that goes back to Richard II, which is several hundred years before the Tories even existed. They like to start early.

[Luke]

In this era of lousy journalism writing, found this to be one of the best pieces I've read in a long time. Kudos to Tanya Gold for this Opinion column in POLITICO EU:

The end of Boris Johnson
At the Commons privileges committee, the former PM’s murderers came armed with smiles.
BY TANYA GOLD MARCH 23, 2023 4:03 AM CET

Tanya Gold is a freelance journalist.

Boris Johnson’s political career ended on Wednesday, with stuttering and fake politesse.

Seated before a U.K. House of Commons committee poised to rule on whether he lied to parliament about Partygate, Johnson was far from his element. Beneath the ghost of his famous bonhomie and the half-conceived rhetoric, I saw anger segueing to bafflement: A man who has been forgiven all his life, now unforgiven. He should rewatch the original “House of Cards:” nothing lasts forever.

If Johnson once coasted on the times, now he is cursed by them. Britain has a new seriousness and a new PM: In politics, a bookie is followed by a bishop, to borrow the journalist Malcolm Muggeridge’s famous phrase. (I’m not including Liz Truss, who is owed a special category of her own.)

Johnson may be suspended from parliament if the committee finds against him, and he may then lose his seat. The classicist in him will understand: He is most in danger from his friends. The committee’s Tory questioners were more savage, but they have been more deeply betrayed. He is an embarrassment now. They will throw him overboard for a percentage point. When the committee paused for a vote, he led a rebellion against the government on the Windsor Framework, Rishi Sunak’s solution to Johnson’s own Brexit deal. Only 22 out of 354 Tory MPs followed him. This is how he departs.

The hearing took place in a dull room with expensive furniture that looked cheap and a mad mural of leaves in his eye line. Johnson isn’t in politics for dull rooms: He’s in it to ride his motorbike around Chequers.

Harriet Harman, the Labour MP and Mother of the House, was in the chair wearing black, as precise as Johnson is chaotic, with a necklace that looked like a chain. Was it metaphor? Harman has spent her career supporting female parliamentarians. Then a man who said voting Tory would give wives bigger breasts won an 80-seat majority in 2019. But that was a whole pandemic ago.

Johnson was there to defend himself against the charge that he repeatedly lied to parliament when he said guidance was followed in No. 10. His strategy was distraction: obscuration, and repetition, and sentences that tripped along ring roads, going nowhere.

He has never been so boring: No one listening ever wants to hear the word “guidance” again. If the ability to inflict boredom was his defense, it was also his destruction. Johnson is supposed to be a seducer with a fascinating narrative arc ― one of his campaign videos aped the film “Love Actually” ― not a bore. But needs must. The fascination was thrown overboard.

He swore to tell the truth on a fawn-colored Bible, but he did not look at it. He rocked on his heels. He has had a haircut: As ever, his hair emotes for him. The mop, so redolent of Samson ― he would muss it before big speeches, to disguise that he cared ― is a sullen bowl now. He looked haunted. Lord Pannick, his lawyer, smiled behind him. His resting face is a smile, and he needed it.

Johnson told Harman there would soon be a Commons vote, as if she, Mother of the House, didn’t know. She said she would suspend proceedings for the vote, and he talked over her with a flurry of thanks. He thanked her four times. He didn’t mean it.

He read a statement: “I’m here to say to you, hand on heart, that I did not lie to the House.” He made a fist, and placed his hand on his chest where his heart isn’t: on the right-hand side. He said there was a near-universal belief in No. 10 that the guidance was followed, and that is why he said so to the House.

He shuffled his papers, as handsome Bernard Jenkin, a Tory, began the questioning with exaggerated gravity, to indicate that the Tories are through with levity. He reminded Johnson that he had regularly said “hands, face, space” while standing behind podiums that also said, “hands, face, space,” which indicated he understand the guidance.

They discussed the leaving party of Lee Cain, Johnson’s former director of communications. There were 15-20 people there, Jenkin reminded him, you gave a speech. Johnson said guidance was followed, at least while he was there. Jenkin pressed him. “I don’t accept that people weren’t making an effort to distance themselves socially from each other,” Johnson said, while we gazed at a photograph of people standing next to each other. And this was how it was for 300 minutes: We were invited to ignore the evidence of our own eyes, even as they chilled with boredom.

Johnson insisted: “It was necessary because two senior members of staff were about to leave the building in pretty acrimonious circumstances. It was important for me to be there and to give reassurance.” This fits the Johnson myth. He was there for morale, while others governed, because that’s boring. I am not sure that the leaving party of a press aide is a matter of state, but Johnson always lived for headlines. Even so, he pleaded: We had sanitizers, we kept windows open, we had Zoom meetings, we had Perspex screens between desks, we had regular testing ― way beyond what the guidance advised!

“If you had said all that at the time to the House of Commons, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here,” said Jenkin mildly, even sympathetically, and that’s when I knew it was over. Tories are awfully like characters from “The Godfather” sometimes: murderers come with smiles. “But you didn’t.”

Jenkin read the guidance to him: “You must maintain social distancing in the workplace wherever possible.” “The business of the government had to be carried on!” Johnson cried. “That is what I had to do!” No one replied: “It was Lee Cain’s leaving do, you maniac.”

On it went, trench warfare. Johnson didn’t seem to understand that he wasn’t describing an absence of law-breaking, but a culture of it. In his wine-filled wood, he couldn’t see a tree. Committee members suggested he breached the guidance. He said he didn’t ― and if it should have been obvious to him that he was breaching it, it should have been obvious to Rishi Sunak too. They asked him why he didn’t take proper advice when talking to the House. (Because he trusted the press office. His people. Lawyers aren’t his people.)

Bernard Jenkin said: “I put it to you, Mr. Johnson, that you did not take proper advice.” Johnson’s thumb stroked his other thumb. He exploded with tangents, and eventually half-shouted: “This is nonsense, I mean complete nonsense!” Lord Pannick’s smile slid down his face. He blinked.

I would like to say this is the last gasp for Johnson’s faux-aristocratic style, with its entitlement and its pseudo-intellectualism, but his danger was ever in his precedent. It is always pleasing when a narcissist is exposed, and by himself, but there will be another one along soon enough. I wonder if its hair will have its own cuttings file.

Amid his word salad, Johnson told Harman she had said things that were “plainly and wrongly prejudicial, or prejudge the very issue you are adjudicating.” She told him the assurances he used to inform parliament had been “flimsy.” Finally, he said he’d much enjoyed the day. (He lied.) The question, as ever with Johnson, is ― does he believe it himself? Truthfully, it doesn’t matter now.

https://www.politico.eu/article/the-end ... partygate/

[Ben-Prime]

I find it amazing that Boris Johnson is in more trouble for having a party than half our Congress is for trying to overthrow the government. It's only just now that maybe Trump might possibly get held accountable for it.

He violated the culture of keeping a stiff upper lip and sacrificing. This is a crime against British identity. I'm somewhat serious about this. It's the same reason so many people here consider the Sussexes to be 'whingers'.

Oh come on, Tories pissing in the face of the rules for the peasants is a tradition that goes back to Richard II, which is several hundred years before the Tories even existed. They like to start early.

True, but I mean more than when caught, he squirmed and whinged.

[Gregg]

Drag his ass out to the Tower and make him a head shorter.

It'll be the first decent haircut he's had since Eton.

[RTH10260]

Top Tory MPs ask for £10,000 a day to work for fake Korean company
Video footage shows Matt Hancock and Kwasi Kwarteng discussing pay rates after being duped by campaigners

Jon Ungoed-Thomas
Sat 25 Mar 2023 18.42 GMT

The former chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and former health secretary, Matt Hancock, agreed to work for £10,000 a day to further the interests of a fake South Korean firm after apparently being duped by the campaign group Led by Donkeys.

Kwarteng attended a preliminary meeting at his parliamentary office and agreed in principle to be paid the daily rate after saying he did not require a “king’s ransom”. When Hancock was asked his daily rate, he responded: “It’s 10,000 sterling.”

Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, also attended an online meeting for the fake foreign firm from his parliamentary office. When asked about the limits on arranging meetings, he made clear he could not advocate on behalf of the interest but said he may be able to advise the firm on who to approach in government. He said a rate of about £6,000 a day “feels about right” and any payments would be on a public register.

A fourth MP, former minister Stephen Hammond, who had been approached, said this weekend he considered he had been the victim of a “scam”. He said he thought he was engaged in a preliminary discussion with a company but “it turns out this company was fake, with a fake website”. Hancock’s spokesperson said he had acted “entirely properly” and criticised what he described as the “illegal publication of a private conversation”.

The senior politicians have complied with all relevant rules and referred to their obligation to their constituents during preliminary meetings. The Led by Donkeys project, conducted with investigative reporter Antony Barnett, comes at a time when people face a cost of living crisis. The campaign group released a report on its investigation on Twitter on Saturday , with recorded undercover footage.

While they are not prohibited from such meetings and no arrangements were finalised, there is currently intense scrutiny of politicians’ outside earnings. Labour has said it will ban most second jobs for MPs if it wins power.




https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... an-company

[Uninformed]

Question Time is a long-running BBC program where an invited audience gets to ask questions of politicians and other “worthies”.

“Question Time audience asked: Was Boris Johnson telling truth?”:

[Gregg]

Question Time is a long-running BBC program where an invited audience gets to ask questions of politicians and other “worthies”.

“Question Time audience asked: Was Boris Johnson telling truth?”:

To the first question, probably.

Please state your name for the record?

[Sam the Centipede]

Apparently the building standards people in the UK are investigating the construction of the Bible that Johnson swore his oath on because its fireproof qualities must be outstanding. They recommend too that Johnson's pants material be used for drapes in areas of fire risk.

[RTH10260]

[RTH10260]

UK ‘strikingly unprepared’ for impacts of climate crisis
Government’s official advisers point to ‘lost decade’ in efforts to protect lives and livelihoods

Damian Carrington Environment editor
Wed 29 Mar 2023 00.01 BST

The UK is “strikingly unprepared” for the impacts of the climate crisis, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which said there had been a “lost decade” in efforts to adapt for the impacts of global heating.

The CCC, the government’s official climate adviser, said climate damages will inevitably intensify for decades to come. It has warned repeatedly of poor preparation in the past and said government action was now urgently needed to protect people and their homes and livelihoods.

The extreme heatwave in 2022, when temperatures surpassed 40C for the first time, was both an example and a warning, the CCC said. More than 3,000 people died early and 20% of hospital operations were cancelled at the peak of the heatwave, while rail lines buckled, wildfires raged and farmers struggled with drought. “It won’t be long before those kinds of very hot summers are a normal summer,” said Chris Stark, CCC chief executive.

Areas where needed action is missing include heat-proofing homes, stemming leaks from water supply pipes and preparing for flash floods and shortages of food and other imports from nations struck by climate impacts.

“The government is not putting together a plan that reflects the scale and the nature of the risks that face the whole country,” said Stark. “This is completely critical. There is no option but to adapt to the change in the climate. The question is only whether we do that well by doing it early or wait until later.”



https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ate-crisis

[RTH10260]

Lost decade? Funny how that neatly covers the Torys in government

[Gregg]

If only they had a trade agreement with a close neighboring bloc of countries to help them ease out some of the bumps....

[RTH10260]

UK joins Asia-Pacific CPTPP trade bloc that includes Japan and Australia
Unions have condemned clauses in deal that will allow large firms to sue UK government behind closed doors

Phillip Inman
Fri 31 Mar 2023 01.00 BST

Britain has joined the 11-member strong Asia-Pacific trade bloc that includes Japan and Australia after nearly two years of negotiations.

The deal, part of a push to agree worldwide trade deals after Brexit, secures access for British exporters to 500 million people in the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The agreement, secured after 21 months of talks, will allow exporters to “seize opportunities for new jobs, growth and innovation”, the government said.

Spanning Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Vietnam and Malaysia, the CPTPP is expected to be ratified by the UK parliament and those of the other 11 member states later this year.

The government said the deal, which will cut tariffs on exports of food, drink and cars, would generate £1.8bn of extra income once it had been up and running for 10 years, which is about 0.08% of the UK’s annual gross national product (GDP).



https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -australia

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