gardentiger
Who gives a shit.
It is distracting from Partygate – which is what has the Tories worried.
Most new skool Tory support still lament the loss of Page 3, so it’s a safe message to push.
Not so much the pissups that Johnson was having whilst most traditional Tory support didn’t dare open the windows let alone go outside.
That is why this crap needs ignoring and there to be only one theme.
PARTYGATE BABY YEAH!
One things for sure, if the rate of scandals stays this high we're going to run out of gates
you can vote on my danger**** poll
It would be difficult to guess. Most of them are permanently red-faced and talking in incoherent splutterings of manufactured (or genuine) outrage about something.
Mind you, there’s a fair few for whom the excitement would prove fatal.
For the ones getting caught viewing porn in the office I’m just surprised that they are too dumb to even use a VPN. As mentioned earlier it is mandated that the logs are kept, but it’s so easy to get round that with a VPN.
Doing it on the floor of the HoC though is a whole other level of stupidity.
As a result, coupon substituted face.
Every day's a school day. Thank you.
there’s porn and porn. From the soft or erotic art end of the spectrum to the illegal end. Then there are the dating sites or exchange sites you may or may not consider porn which are at the same level as people talking about their latest MTB or group ride and linking pics on STW.
However you care to slice this, whether it's the 'good kind' of porn or not, is irrelevant. There will be an Acceptable Use policy in place which defines what they can and cannot do. If they have breached this policy then it is misconduct.
In any case, if we can use an analogue analogy for a moment, it should be blindingly obvious to anyone with half a brain who isn't either a desperate Tory apologist or looking for an argument on the Internet that there is a raft of difference between slacking off at work with a copy of the Beano and slacking off at work with a copy of Razzle. Doubly so if you're likely to be accidentally shoulder-surfed.
It genuinely is a mystery to those in the HoC.
From Nadine Dorries “downstreaming”
Did you see her explanation for that? She blamed it on dyslexia.
Could be Thérèse Coffey
None of them have a **** clue. Although it seems most of them can use a search engine…
I’m just surprised that they are too dumb to even use a VPN.
I forget who it was now, but one MP (speaking about internet piracy), clearly didn't understand the difference between IP (internet protocol) and IP (intellectual property).
This is going back a few years but was an absolute classic example of someone pretending to know what they are talking about with authority on the subject, being so hillariously wrong it almost wasn't funny.
As mentioned earlier it is mandated that the logs are kept, but it’s so easy to get round that with a VPN.
It's a degree of effort but it's not difficult to block / identify outbound VPN traffic. One might argue that a government establishment should be doing this by default to protect against far greater threats than some former public schoolboy watching a bit of lunchtime grumble.
And lest we not forget (again) this is a government which established the Investigatory Powers Bill and has tried on more than one occasion to un-invent one-way encryption. It would of course be unthinkable that rather than leading by example they'd be making rules for us that they don't follow themselves, right?
From Nadine Dorries “downstreaming”
Surely that's simply tory policy on disposal of industrial waste into british waterways?
I forget who it was now, but one MP (speaking about internet piracy), clearly didn’t understand the difference between IP (internet protocol) and IP (intellectual property).
Let's all take a wild guess, should we?
I forget who it was now, but one MP (speaking about internet piracy), clearly didn’t understand the difference between IP (internet protocol) and IP (intellectual property).
Yeah, I saw that, they didn't just 'not understand the difference,' they didn't know there was a difference to understand. They explained it to the house as an Intellectual Property Address.
Irritatingly I don't remember who it was now either. Can anyone else?
It’s a degree of effort but it’s not difficult to block / identify outbound VPN traffic.
You might be able to see that they were using a VPN (and block it) but as I understand it you wouldn't be able to see what sites they were visiting. I'm no expert though.
Is it Boris? 😆
Did you see her explanation for that? She blamed it on dyslexia.
Which is even more stupid than just blaming it on rank stupidity.
This is the woman remember who proudly admitted that she shared her login details with all her support staff (ironically around the time of another MP being investigated for having porno on his work laptop).
INEWS.CO.UK This is a Government which is forever championing the use of (usually very non-specific) "technology" to solve issues like borders in the Irish Sea and ID cards while also being utterly clueless about encryption, algorithms and hashtags (other than thinking they're Bad Things Because A Terrorist Can Use Them).
Yeah, I saw that, they didn’t just ‘not understand the difference,’ they didn’t know there was a difference to understand. They explained it to the house as an Intellectual Property Address.Irritatingly I don’t remember who it was now either. Can anyone else?
@Cougar - that would be the Rt Honourable Steven Timms, the UK's Minister for Digital Britain (yes really) in 2010.
Edukator
It that situation I’d put it as the same level as those people on here currently at work in their offices on STW. Happy? I wouldn’t know so wouldn’t be happy or sad.
Not really. Leaving aside the moral issues over porn, it's a false equivalence between browsing STW, (or Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc etc) and viewing material for your own sexual gratification at work.
Pretty sure whilst the former may get you reprimanded the latter would constitute gross misconduct.
And that's before we get into whether our lawmakers *should* be (and they patently aren't at the moment) examples of moral rectitude for the rest of us.
I mean, I remember back in the mists of time when misleading Parliament was a resigning matter...
Did you see her explanation for that? She blamed it on dyslexia.
Who was the woman MP whose husband was proved to be watching "Pay Per View" Porn back at the hotel while his wife was at a meeting (or conference). I think it only came out because the hotel bill was put through as expenses, including the porn - which I assume she hadn't noticed.
I remember seeing her on National TV standing outside her house apologising while her husband stood beside her. Let's see if this goes the same way 🙂
I'm amazed* they've not been thrown out their party and deselected. Total contempt for the house, their constituents and tax payers who pay their salary. Totally unacceptable behaviour at work (even watching a non porn movie at work should be disciplinary material).
* obviously I'm not at all as this is the Tories, so he'll probably get promoted to cabinet soon.
martinhutch Full Member
There are ‘only’ 56 MPs currently facing allegations of sexual misconduct,
From page 1 of this thread! I'm surprised at STW just glossing over this! Or is there a separate thread I missed...?
All the talk of gross misconduct and such assumes it was a work device or a personal device used on a work network. That's quite the assumption. I don't often agree with Ed but the comparison is fair (if not exactly balanced), I assume all your workplaces have acceptable use policies that don't include sitting on STW all day. I assume none of you zone out during boring bits of meetings or such and do something else.
Leaving aside the stupidity/vulgarity of watching porn in public places, if a tree falls and nobody is there did they really get wood?
You might be able to see that they were using a VPN (and block it) but as I understand it you wouldn’t be able to see what sites they were visiting. I’m no expert though.
Any law abiding, self respecting organisation* will require you to connect from home/mobile via thier own cooperate VPN of choice, where they have complete visibility and control, if they want.
*excluding the UK government 😉
Do you people really find it anything more than slightly amusing that an MP views porn at work?
I find it wholly unacceptable and it would be a sackable offence at my work. We have an IT policy and any such usage would be in contravention of that policy. What MPs or anyone else chooses to do in the privacy of their own home, in their own time, subject to legality, is of no interest whatsoever.
All the talk of gross misconduct and such assumes it was a work device or a personal device used on a work network. That’s quite the assumption.
Would you consider sitting in the house browsing through a paper copy of Readers' Wives to be gross misconduct or no?
These are grown-ass adults who are at least supposed to be running the country, not 14-year olds being caught behind the bike sheds having a crafty fag. Maybe the grumble wasn't theirs, they were just holding it for a friend.
Everyone is assuming the MP was streaming it, but it could have been downloaded on their own wifi/mobile connection...
(I'm not condoning the behaviour!)
Any law abiding, self respecting organisation*
...
*excluding the UK government 😉
You already excluded them before providing a disclaimer.
All the talk of gross misconduct and such assumes it was a work device or a personal device used on a work network. That’s quite the assumption.
I don't think that is the assumption at all. I think the assumption is an MP was acting inappropriately by watching porn on work time, a gross misconduct offence, regardlesss of the porn delivery mechanism.
Would you keep a copy of Razzle in your desk draw and think that that's acceptable? hehehe 😀
Could’ve been a home movie
If I, as a civil servant, was watching porn at work, gross misconduct would see me sacked in less than a week.
Being logged into STW all day is also gross misconduct, whether you are using it or not. But we can look at STW at lunchtime. But definitely not porn.
Just seen tomorrow's Matt cartoon for the Telegraph (I follow him on FB) - he's spot on as usual.
Would you consider sitting in the house browsing through a paper copy of Readers’ Wives to be gross misconduct or no?
That depends, am I supposed to be working?
If I, as a civil servant, was watching porn at work, gross misconduct would see me sacked in less than a week.
Being logged into STW all day is also gross misconduct, whether you are using it or not. But we can look at STW at lunchtime. But definitely not porn.
Thank you, someone else gets the point.
Lord Snooty in the Chief Whips Office with a copy of Knave.
My understanding is the alleged offence was reported by an adjacent female Tory colleague**. Coulda been offline, coulda been on a personal device via a mobile / cellular connection, coulda been on a work device blah blah. But irrespective of whether it was 'work' resources were involved it'll undoubtedly fall foul of what constitutes accepted behaviour in the Chamber. However the word 'disrepute' is being redefined on a weekly basis.
** which also means it'll be a Lynton Crosby dead cat.
There are ‘only’ 56 MPs currently facing allegations of sexual misconduct, so you’ve got a fair chance of being right regardless of who you pick.
Is that for real ? There’s what , 650 MP’s in total so that’s near enough 10% of em.
Seems incredibly high. That’s quite WTF isn’t it ?
Not overly surprised...a position of power immediately makes you think you are above everyone else - perfectly demonstrated by Partygate and the rest of the mince going on.
It is a shameful state to be in though...
That depends, am I supposed to be working?
Assuming by 'the house' they mean house of commons, rather than 'the private comfort of my own 2nd home" then yes you should be working, rather than cackling over some lady(or other, parhaps more specialist) pictures with a coleague.
Or indeed be asleep on the front bench like a homeless person a la JRM.
Maybe the seats should be refurbished with hand rails and metal spikes like they do with public benches, to prevent this sort of tardy attitude from ministers?
Or better still, replace all the commons benches with 45 degree downward angled seats like they do with bus stops.
Being logged into STW all day is also gross misconduct, whether you are using it or not. But we can look at STW at lunchtime. But definitely not porn.
What about playing Candy Crush during a meeting? Surprise surprise, that was also a Conservative…
That’s quite WTF isn’t it ?
Single sex public school educated, so a deeply misogynistic culture has been ingrained in them. I would suspect 56 is just the tip of the iceberg, most events go unreported as the victims get treated so badly it's just not worth the extra suffering of reporting it.
Not overly surprised…a position of power immediately makes you think you are above everyone else
That’s exactly what my wife said when the story about Westwood came on the telly
I’d assumed it was like many previous cases where traces were found on computers etc.
Gads - they could at least use a tissue.
I think who isn’t the House of Commons perv might be a simpler question to answer.
More Tory trickle down. Did he splash out on a new suit I wonder?
I don’t think that is the assumption at all. I think the assumption is an MP was acting inappropriately by watching porn on work time, a gross misconduct offence, regardlesss of the porn delivery mechanism.
Precisely. It'd be gross misconduct at my work.
Did they have to get the super expensive and Ill fitting suit dry cleaned afterwards though? Is that a legitimate thing to put on your expenses form?
Asking for a Conservative friend.
