Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

And Paterson has resigned as an MP - utter retreat

The latest person foiled by trying to rely on Johnson.

[Tamas]

And Paterson has resigned as an MP - utter retreat

The latest person foiled by trying to rely on Johnson.

i am not sure about British laws but shouldn't the state (police/prosecutors) become involved? I assume Randox etc. got lucrative contracts that's a lot of taxpayers money handed out via openly admitted corruption.

[PJL]

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/how-mail-sun-express-report-brexit/

This is never going to end, is it? Europe will always be the source of all problems for the mob.

We're going to be the Canada to the EU's USA.

[The Brain]

And Paterson has resigned as an MP - utter retreat

The latest person foiled by trying to rely on Johnson.

i am not sure about British laws but shouldn't the state (police/prosecutors) become involved?

[Sheilbh]

i am not sure about British laws but shouldn't the state (police/prosecutors) become involved? I assume Randox etc. got lucrative contracts that's a lot of taxpayers money handed out via openly admitted corruption.

These were the findings against him. Corrupt and clearly against professional standards, but I'm not sure there's any crimes in here - but not my area so I could be wrong:

Mr Paterson has been a paid consultant to Randox, a clinical diagnostics company, since August 2015, and a paid consultant to Lynn's Country Foods, a processor and distributor of meat products including 'nitrite-free' products, since December 2016.

The Commissioner found that Mr Paterson had breached the rule prohibiting paid advocacy, set out in paragraph 11 of the 2015 MP's Code of Conduct, in making three approaches to the Food Standards Agency relating to Randox and the testing of antibiotics in milk in November 2016 and November 2017; in making seven approaches to the Food Standards Agency relating to Lynn's Country Foods in November 2017, January 2018 and July 2018; and in making four approaches to Ministers at the Department for International Development relating to Randox and blood testing technology in October 2016 and January 2017.

The Commissioner also found that Mr Paterson had breached paragraph 13 of the 2015 MP's Code of Conduct, on declarations of interest, by failing to declare his interest as a paid consultant to Lynn's Country Foods in four emails to officials at the Food Standards Agency on 16 November 2016, 15 November 2017, 8 January 2018 and 17 January 2018.

Lastly, the Commissioner found that Mr Paterson breached paragraph 15 of the 2015 MP's Code of Conduct, on use of parliamentary facilities, by using his parliamentary office on 25 occasions for business meetings with his clients between October 2016 and February 2020; and in sending two letters, on 13 October 2016 and 16 January 2017, relating to his business interests, on House of Commons headed notepaper. Following further evidence from Mr Paterson, the Committee accepted that the number of meetings in question was 16, not 25 – though the Committee questioned why Mr Paterson could not have made this further evidence available to the Commissioner during her investigation.

Mr Paterson acknowledged that his use of headed notepaper for two letters relating to his business interests breached the rules of the House and apologised to the Commissioner and to the Committee for doing so. Mr Paterson maintained that he had not breached the Code in any other respect.

On the conclusion of the investigation the Commissioner's draft memorandum was made available to Mr Paterson, in December 2020.

Edit: Incidentally - re. The Mail they are awful but they have an editorial line (well, two actually the Mail = Leave; Mail on Sunday = Remain). Today's front page:

And tomorrow's (plus 5 pages of special reports on sleaze ):


They're not suddenly on the left or centrists or whatever else - but they have their own agenda/view and will pursue it even if it's harming a Tory MP (unlike the Telegraph who presumably want to make sure Johnson returns as a columnist in retirement).

Edit: Also interesting little detail in the FT:

More than 100 Tory MPs failed to vote with the prime Minister, even though - according to one backbencher - some were told "they would lose funding for their constituency" if they failed to toe the line.

This feels like a very damaging victory.

[Tamas]

I am 100% convinced estate agents or people with direct interest in estate agents write a lot of the property columns at The Guardian. They regularly post such disgustingly marketing-smelling articles:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/nov/05/homebuyers-interest-rates-freeze-mortgage-bank-england

Homebuyers have been given a few more months to lock into the record low mortgage rates that have helped keep the housing market booming during the pandemic, after the Bank of England held the base rate at 0.1%.

Lenders had been repricing their home loans upwards in recent days amid speculation the rate would rise to 0.25%, and many of the cheapest deals have been withdrawn.

However, while there are no longer three- and five-year mortgages for sale at interest rates below 1%, borrowers with large deposits still have a large choice of loans priced at less than 2%.

Experts said while the cost of debt remained close to record lows, house prices were unlikely to fall. However activity and growth would slow as rises reduced borrowers' disposable income.

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"While the best deals may now already be history, the decision not to raise interest rates will give homebuyers further opportunity to lock into the low interest rates that have given a booming housing market oxygen during the past 16 months," Lucian Cook, the head of residential research at the property firm Savills, said.

And then it goes on like this.

[Josquius]

More than 100 Tory MPs failed to vote with the prime Minister, even though - according to one backbencher - some were told "they would lose funding for their constituency" if they failed to toe the line.

Pff. The tories aren't even trying to hide their corruption and obsession with pork these days are they.

[Sheilbh]

Richard Desmond in legal battle with Wikipedia over term 'pornographer'
Former owner of Asian Babes and Readers' Wives has hired lawyers to demand Wikipedia remove word from bio
Jim Waterson Media editor
@jimwaterson
Fri 5 Nov 2021 12.55 GMT

Richard Desmond, the billionaire former owner of adult television channels and top-shelf magazines, has spent years having his Wikipedia edited in a failed attempt to remove any suggestion he is a "pornographer".

The former owner of the Daily Express and Channel 5, and one of Britain's richest men, appears to have become fixated with his biography on the open-source encyclopedia. To this end, an account operating on behalf of Desmond has repeatedly edited the article to replace the description of him as a "pornographer" with the term "philanthropist".

According to legal documents seen by the Guardian, Desmond says he cannot factually be described as a pornographer because that term applies only to individuals who publish illegal and obscene material. Desmond says the top-shelf magazines and television channels he owned for decades were instead in the legitimate "adult material" category distributed in high-street shops and on Sky.

The former owner of the magazines Asian Babes and Readers' Wives, who owned adult outlets from the 1980s until 2016, has now hired lawyers to demand Wikipedia permanently deletes any mentions of the word "pornographer" from his biography.

Lawyers acting for the businessman this week asked Wikipedia administrators to investigate edits to the page, actively monitor it in case the word is reinstated, and keep "genuine, factually correct, edits by Mr Desmond" on the page.

"The use of the term 'pornographer' when applied to our client is at least factually wrong, gratuitous and insulting, and at most commercially damaging," they wrote.

His lawyers claim that Wikipedia editors who describe Desmond as a pornographer may be commercial motivated as part of a "strategy by business competitors to harm his public image".

"Attempts have been made to rectify the factual errors by Mr Desmond numerous times. Despite this, each time, editors have reinstated the term 'pornographer'," the lawyers wrote.

As part of Desmond's legal threat, the lawyers confirmed he has spent three years having his own Wikipedia page edited through an account with the username NewsEditor1959. Although it is unclear who is operating the account, it has been used to remove references to Desmond's work in the adult industry and add substantial sections about his donations to charities such as Moorfields eye hospital.

NewsEditor1959 also cut references to how Desmond's company allegedly hid copies of Penthouse magazine when Princess Anne arrived to open the company's new office.

A representative for Desmond declined to comment.

Desmond, 69, has largely exited the media industry in recent years after offloading Channel 5 to Viacom for a substantial profit and selling his newspapers to Reach, the publisher of the Mirror. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, he is the UK's 107th-richest man.

However, he hit the headlines again last year amid claims he had inappropriately lobbied the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, at a Tory party fundraiser to approve a major redevelopment in Canary Wharf, London. Jenrick later said he regretted the episode.

[Josquius]

This article is sure to help things.

[Sheilbh]

Total aside - but I'd heard nothing about that "HORROR AT THE MORGUE" story. Read an article on it today and it's absolutely crazy.

From what I understand there's some man in his late 60s who's been arrested for and confessed to murdering two women in the 80s - I think they had DNA on him. But he then worked as an electrician in a hospital with a morgue and over the time apparently sexually interfered with over 100 corpses - there's loads of videos the police are going through, presumably to inform the families which must be a really grim job. But the reporting is there could be a lot more given the volume of videos he had stored.

Needless to say there's multipe inquiries/reviews by the NHS, hospitals, the Human Tissue Authority etc on security, hiring, access and everything to do with morgues.

[The Brain]

If it was in the morgue then it isn't Alice Cooper (also: age).

[Sheilbh]

Further fall-out from the Paterson scandal.

Johnson's approval rating is at its lowest level and on polling from (mostly) after the Paterson vote have Labour and the Tories level-pegging (plus the Greens on 5-10%, which won't happen). More interesting because it tends to be more predictive between elections, Starmer and Johnson are level-pegging in the best PM poll - just a couple of months ago Johnson was ahead by about 10%.

Meanwhile the Sunday Times has a story about the Tories selling lordships to donors (£3million+). I think when this was a scandal for Blair the going price was (£1million+), I don't know about when it was a scandal under Wilson or Lloyd-George As far as I can tell from the periodic scandals it's fine to appoint your donors to the House of Lords as long as you don't mention it

[Josquius]

Nice to see something actually makes a breakthrough. Have to wonder what the hell the tories were thinking there.

Also got to pondering on Johnson lately with him trying to come across as such an environmentalist.... Is this just because he smells untapped opportunity in green industries that he can try and spin as brexit benefits...

[Zanza]

Why do you keep an undemocratic institution like the House of Lords anyway? Seems anachronistic.

[Tamas]

Why do you keep an undemocratic institution like the House of Lords anyway? Seems anachronistic.

TBF the UK isn't a democracy.