Yet another example of where just taking the points would have been the end of the matter but instead it’s got to go through the whole “special treatment, exposé, cover up, denial…” phase all over the news
She’s not very good at this politics lark, is she?
All this nonsense all over the papers for what? 3 points and a bit of a fine?
I see Rishi is taking the Arsene Wenger approach when questioned about it?
I think the question to ask is why has this story broken now when it happened about a year ago?
The thought did cross my mind too.
I’m sure it definitely didn’t come from Rishi and his aides because, as they’ve made quite clear, they didn’t know anything about it
At least if they’re busy doing their favourite thing – knifing each other – they have less time to devote to taking people’s basic human rights away, wrecking the economy and pumping shit into our rivers
Continue doing nothing about the shit and the rest of the shit.
according to the daily fail comments it's lefty AGC civil servants that dun it :/
We should have known it’d be the pesky Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati that were behind it all!
I really don't get this.. 3 points and a reletivley small (reletivley zero compared to MPs take home pay if you take into consideration all the expenses waivers and side-gigs they all seem to have).
No one would reaally bat an eyelid if they just paid the fine, took the points and moved on.
But the covering up and wriggling and squirming to get out of it, and dishonesty...
It all just suggests that they really do think they are exceptional and should be immune to such rules of law, we see this time and time again.
I think there was a story going round that she had queried if speeding fines could be put through on expenses when she first became an MP.
That may have been up, or leaked as a prequel to the main feature here...
3 points would have been so easy to take I bet she drives all of a few miles a year anyway. she seems the type that likes having "staff" the ones we pay for anyway.
MCTD - she, reportedly, asked that question of IPSA and was told...no.
So much for MPs and, particularly, the governing party being held to a higher standard than the general population.
I'm old enough to remember when something like this happened the MP would've resigned by tea time
They can always get a taxi /chauffeur anyway for what it costs them... That could actually be put through expenses anyway.
It's just pure entitlement/elitism to try and wriggle out of a speeding ticket.
Absolutely hate that it's being spun as "she paid the fine so it's all OK". Nobody's bothered that she got a speeding fine, nobody's impressed that she paid it, but it's all just about pretending that's what the conversation is about rather than "politician doesn't think the rules that apply to everyone else should apply to them, again".
It's not looking particularly good for Braverman
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65659053
"On Monday the prime minister will meet Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent official who opposition parties want to examine the claims, when he returns from the G7 summit in Japan".
And:
"This kind of headline, while he is wrangling world leaders abroad, is a headache at home that he certainly does not need."
Yup.
It’s not looking particularly good for Braverman
Maybe she'll have to resign and then be reappointed 6 days later (again).
Previous resignation was for (checks notes) oh yes...breaches of the ministerial code.
Amazing how many "honest mistakes" you can make like that isn't it?!
She’ll already have told little Rishi how this is all going to play out
I think she'll be gone within 2 weeks. The tide has turned against her.
So she made a pitch to be next the PM and then all this comes out. Makes you think eh?
Or not.
Very good
I think she’ll be gone within 2 weeks. The tide has turned against her.
I'm not so sure, she's pushed very hard to become the Headbanger's darling, giving voice to all sorts of horrible little ideas to curry favour with the influential bastard fringe... I think it's worked for her.
Rishi's grasp on power is pretty weak, and there are plenty within his party (and his cabinet) who see him as a lame duck (probably quite rightly), unlikely to win the next election. They will happily undermine him to try and force another change of leadership, even if it means taking a few hits along the way.
It's worth keeping track of how far off the GE is (Jan 25 at the latest). Cruella and all the rest will have been told to get in line, or get out by mid July, the following 18 months will be a gradually ramped up campaign telling us how we've never had it so good and trying to keep a lid on their various little scandals and lies. You can bet your arse Rishi wants her gone, but she's not going to go without damaging him on her way...
She's toxic to the Tories on the national stage but knows how to play a dog whistle for the membership, so she'll thrive on the back benches and even once they're in opposition... She was made for the culture wars not for actual government...
So she made a pitch to be next the PM and then all this comes out.
It does seem a bit of a coincidence as the story presumably could have broken any time in the last year, it does suggest someone might have kept their powder dry for the right time.
Although it's pretty fanciful for her to believe that she stands any chance of a bid for the Tory leadership - she did very badly in last July's leadership election getting eliminated after the second round. And unlike Penny Mordaunt she didn't even get a look in at last October's contest.
Braverman isn't popular with the public either.
binners
Full MemberShe’ll already have told little Rishi how this is all going to play out
As much as I'd like to belive you are wrong, I fear you are correct.
Since when did MP's litteraly stop doing what they are paid for, and just fighting each other for cash?
It's like a really bad episode of big brother, or dancing on ice.
Don't aswer, it's a rhetorical question.
As much as I’d like to belive you are wrong, I fear you are correct
She’s the anointed mouthpiece of the association of right wing nutjobs that now make up a serious rump of Tory MPs and the entirety of their elderly racist membership
Rishi knows she’s got far more support in the party than he does. He may be the leader, in name only, but he’s just the latest hostage to the ERG Brexiteer/NatCon headbangers and the irradiated gerbil is calling the shots.
The Tory party is now just an ungovernable mess of fruitloop idealogical zealots who lost all sense of reason or rationality in 2016.
Don’t forget that nobody voted for Rishi. He’s there by default. The people who are making the decisions all thought that the best person for the job of running the country was Liz Truss. They’ve been in denial about their own stupidity ever since and are now lining up behind Cruella
the anointed
Doused in bergamot, patchouli, and mumufied... best place for her.
Breaking news..
Eygbitian goddess braverman has accepeted 3 points on her nonsense.
Interesting interview with Mr Loophole* on 5Live just now.
The course providers will offer private courses to high profile people whose attendance may disrupt a group course. Or their lawyer can request it on that basis - in which case it remains private under legal privilege.
You'd think the government's top lawyer (at tbe time) would know this....
*yes, I was surprised too.
This won't get rid of Braverman. She is too shameless, the nutters are digging in more as they lose more of their best positioned acolytes and it doesn't really seem 'enough'. It is obviously little Rish's play to take a bit of wind out of her sails after getting a shellacking in the locals and Cruella spouting off at that definitely not a fascist conference.
As for Tories being distracted so they can't pump our rivers full of more shit - we'll, that's plain daft. They don't do it themselves. They give the green light to their mates to do it so they can take bonuses and pay dividends. That ship has sailed - into a minefield of turds and used dobbers.
The whole Tory government does have the whiff of death about it, though. But there's still 18 months of environmental, societal and reputational damage they can do to the UK.
Rishi knows she’s got far more support in the party than he does.
There is no evidence of that. When there was talk of replacing Liz Truss during her disastrous premiership Rishi Sunak was the second most popular person among Tory Party members after Boris Johnson.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-favourite-among-tory-25291273
Were Liz Truss to buckle to pressure and resign, Tory members would most want to see Boris Johnson brought back to replace her. One in three (32%) say he is the person they would most want to take over, followed by 23% for former chancellor and leadership rival Rishi Sunak and 10% for defence secretary Ben Wallace.
And even if Suella Braverman was somehow more popular among members it would make no difference to Rishi Sunak as he is vastly more popular than she is among Tory MPs - the only people who can trigger a leadership election and choose which two candidates are allowed to stand.
Suella Braverman might have a misplaced belief her own self-importance, I don't know, but I have no idea what it could possibly be based on. The last Tory leadership contest Braverman had the good sense not to bother to throw her hat in the ring and declare her intention to stand - the only other person who did apart from Rishi Sunak was Penny Mordaunt, someone vastly more popular than Braverman.
The whole Tory government does have the whiff of death about it, though. But there’s still 18 months of environmental, societal and reputational damage they can do to the UK.
Indeed and in some ways the infighting is a good thing, if they spend the next year and a half focussed on their various internal power struggles and generating more headline scandals it's all more fuel for the pyre.
The only real worry is just how short the voting public's collective memory seems to be.
The only real worry is just how short the voting public’s collective memory seems to be.
And how susceptible to posters and FB ads showing brown people in boats. 🙄
I think its both interesting and telling that the media is far more open to negative stories about the tories than they were a few years ago. Its like they are no longer afraid of retaliation from the tories.
I agree. Just read in Bringing Down Goliath that there's a sense in the judiciary that a lot of political capital was expended in ruling the Johnson cancellation of parliament illegal, so they're less likely to rule against the government as a result. Scary stuff...
Fun watching Yvette Cooper tearing a strip this afternoon during me break.
She normally sends out a minion to be torn a new one by Yvette Cooper
I agree. Just read in Bringing Down Goliath that there’s a sense in the judiciary that a lot of political capital was expended in ruling the Johnson cancellation of parliament illegal, so they’re less likely to rule against the government as a result. Scary stuff…
That is conflating two issues to an extent, though.
The point was the press (even the nastier, more bigoted end) seem to be turning on the Tories to an extent. Or at least not suppressing embarrassing stories about them. This has been a thing as long as I can remember - John Major nervously rang the editor of the Sun after the ERM pullout and near collapse of Sterling - to ask how his rag would play it. He was told "I've got a big bucket of shit and I'm going to pour it right over your head". Press interactions with politicians and who holds the whip hand is part of a free press and a democratic society. Putting aside all the wealth begets wealth ownership and obvious natural affiliations for a minute - no one in the press wants to be seen backing a loser. In a country with assured, competent leadership, politicians shouldn't run scared of the press because they should just be able to point to a record of achievement and say that it speaks for itself. But, we are lumbered with a bunch of over-promoted no-hopers right now - who hitched a ride on the Brexit wave. Now it is starting to fall apart (as us remoaners said it would) and the press is turning to some extent.
But that is the press.
The point about a supposedly independent judiciary expending political capital is very, very worrying. A judiciary should be apolitical - and ours, generally, does a very good job of being so. This is why bastards (and I use the word deliberately) like Johnson politicising the rulings of the judiciary (he certainly didn't loudly condemn the 'Enemies of the people' headline) is so dangerous. He will have thought it was a wizard wheeze to outplay the judiciary, but he doesn't give a toss about what happens later, so long as he gets what he wants now.
I'd rather have a press in the pockets of the Tories than the judiciary, that is for goddamm certain.
😡
^^^
Just to clarify - our judiciary has apparently been found wanting numerous times - Bloody Sunday, Hillsborough to name two.
But that has to the most extent because politicians have employed a combination of:
Limiting the scope of an investigation.
Briefing the press to get a story out to the court of public opinion.
Closing ranks and employing moves like national security to deny admissibility of evidence.
Etc.
Cruella gave this interview to Geebeebies earlier and repeated the same answer, word for word, in parliament to Yvette Cooper. Both times completely failing to address the question asked, which definitely wasn't "did you receive a speeding ticket?"
She's obviously been briefed to repeat it like a malfunctioning droid whatever anyone asks her to avoid the truth.
"In my view I’m confident nothing untoward has happened." is not an answer. Its just waffle.
I think Braverman is toast. The story is too prominent and the noises from no10 too equivocal
I think you're massively underestimating how completely shameless these lot are.
Do you fancy losing our usual bet again?
I'm saying Rishi waves it away, there is no sanction on her at all and she remains in post.
The usual pastry-based wager?
😀
Ok - score is one each IIRC.
gone in a month?
I agree with TJ - she is cooked. Not because Sunak thinks what she has done is wrong, but because firing her will allow him to eliminate a popular rival and look tough
"but because firing her will allow him to eliminate a popular rival and look tough"
If he does fire her then he's going to have all the bullies lined up against him. In which case I expect them to turn him up side down and shake him untill any political capitol he has left falls to the ground.
I hope you're right because I want to watch it happen.
I wish one of the reporters would go full “thick of it - Jamie” on her…….
Just answer the ****ing question……….
