Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

Yes, very interesting its a tory. And great the reaction has been like so. It Will really throw a spanner in a few tory tactical gears. Hopefully.
Of course they could just cynically use him as a "we cant be transphobic as we have a trans mp. Labour are the transphobes" way. Hopefully the guy himself  speaks out for other trans people.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah. Given the state of the discourse on trans people in general and the UK in specific, it's encouraging to see the support from the Conservative party on this. Honestly, it is not what I would've expected.

Yeah - I think the discourse is disconnected from the reality to an extent. It's what I find so frustrating and distressing about it.

The UK has a Gender Recognition Act from 2004 which was groundbreaking at the time it was past. From what I understand the current position in UK law (from my understanding and the Scottish government's consultation review of other models) is broadly the same as in British Columbia and Manitoba, for comparison. It allows for and, indeed to get a "gender recognition certificate" to change your birth certificate, requires self-identification. A large part of what has prompted the current amount of dispute of trans rights was a proposal by the Equalities Select Committee (chaired by a Tory MP who authored the rerpot) to remove some bits of the GRA that everyone now agrees are wrong, as well as move to an easier self-ID route to getting a gender recognition certificate and changing your documentation - so we'd move in line with, for example, Spain, Argentina, Ireland etc. It was then quite strongly backed by Theresa May who was, of course, a Tory Prime Minister. In addition trans people are already covered by hate crime laws and anti-discrimination laws.

At the same time the UK has the Equalities Act which still isn't fully implemented but creates protections for both single sex and gender spaces. It is unlawful under the Equalities Act to exclude someone from a single-sex space on the basis of their gender or trans status, however it is allowed on a case-by-case basis if there is a genuine risk or safeguarding issue. No-one is proposing changing that and the sensitivity in the UK is often around rape and domestic violence centres and they already have pretty strong duties to conduct risk assessments and exclude more or less anyone they want if they are making the other women in that centre uncomfortable. There is a degree of clarifying how equalities law interacts with gender recognition and trans rights - but the proposals are relatively limited and relatively technical.

So 90% of what the discourse is about is either already allowed or already banned and the new proposal wouldn't change it. I don't fully know why it's exploded in the UK - I'm not convinced by the NYT piece that suggested because imperialism, because I'm not totally sold on what the connecting dots are.

I think Mumsnet is a factor and that there is an online organising presence specifically for women and for mums that's been politically potent since at least 2010 and has radicalised quite a bit. I think the existence of qutie strong sex-based rights in law is another factor (the first response to any tweet by an American man about TERF Island is "come back and talk to us about women's rights when you have maternity leave").

Because of that, it's really difficult I have no doubt there is an international far-right funding element and I think there is very much an international far right link to it (especially around the LGB Alliance), but the majority of the discourse and fights are genuinely on the left. There are Tories who want reform the GRA, but most are relatively comfortable with the status quo for now. But the fights wtihin the SNP, Greens, Labour and some trade unions are really strong - and they really are putting the "RF" into "TERF": Rosie Duffield who's the main "gender critical" Labour MP was a victim of domestic abuse and has a history of working with domestic violence charities; Jo Cherry, who is an MP who left the SNP over trans issues, is a lesbian and was a radical public interest lawyer before she became an MP.

To a large extent the Tories are not wanting to roll back trans rights - they are using it as a tool to promote further divison and discord on the left over the issue. It is always about language with them. They moan about public health messages for "birthing persons" or "people with a cervix" rather than "mothers" or "women" - which feeds into the fights on the left and becomes an easy gotcha question for journalists (which I think Angela Rayner dealt with excellently).

Wes Streeting - who's on the centre-left and is the Labour Shadow Health spokesman, formerly a comms person for Stonewall and spoken of as a possible future leader - has been trying to strike a middle line about this. So for example just today on the radio (as the media asked Starmer "if a woman can have a penis" over the weekend so it's now been the standard question for Labour frontbenchers): Men have penises, women have vaginas, here ends my biology lesson. That doesn't mean by the way that there aren't people who transition to other genders because they experience gender dysphoria and we should acknowledge that and conduct the debate in a respectful way that respects those people's rights and dignity." Not sure if that's a viable path but I think it gives a sense of how much it really is an intra-left issue with the Tories happily poking the hornet's nest.

Now obviously that also has real-life consequences of encouraging really very nasty transphobes to mainstream their ideas and we've seen that especially with the people around the LGB Alliance.

And more widely UK institutions seem to be trying to find a middle way. Employment tribunals have found that trans discrimination is absolutely unlawful and being "gender critical" is protected political speech. So an individual cannot be fired for their "gender critical" posts, but they also cannot dead-name or misgender people or in any way provide a different service to trans people in their job. Similarly the Court of Appeal overturned Bell (a case about medical treatements for trans youths) - there is a big NHS report on healthcare for trans kids. At the minute the interim report is mixed: the waiting lists are too long, there's not enough trans healthcare in regions outside London, the NHS should set up regional centres of excellence, but the evidence on hormone treatments is mixed and should probably be used sparingly.

[Sheilbh]

Report into Shrewsbury Trust maternity deaths is horrendous

Police examine 600 cases after damning NHS baby deaths report
Inquiry into maternity practices at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital trust finds 201 babies could have survived with better care
Andrew Gregory Health editor
Wed 30 Mar 2022 19.24 BST
First published on Wed 30 Mar 2022 10.00 BST

Police are examining 600 cases linked to the biggest maternity scandal in the history of the NHS, after a damning report into baby deaths condemned health staff for blaming mothers while repeatedly ignoring their own catastrophic blunders for decades.

The independent inquiry into maternity practices at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust uncovered hundreds of cases in which health officials failed to undertake serious incident investigations, while deaths were dismissed or not investigated appropriately.

Grieving families were denied access to reviews of their care and mothers were blamed when their babies died or suffered horrific injuries. A total of 201 babies and nine mothers could have or would have survived if the NHS trust had provided better care, the inquiry found.

There were also 29 cases where babies suffered severe brain injuries and 65 incidents of cerebral palsy. Rhiannon Davies, one of the mothers who fought for justice for years after her daughter Kate died in 2009, said the numbers themselves did "not tell the whole story" of the impact on families.

On Wednesday, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, issued a Commons apology for the failings, telling MPs: "We entrust the NHS with our care, often when we're at our most vulnerable. In return we expect the highest standards.

"But when those standards are not met, we must act firmly, and the failures of care and compassion that are set out in this report have absolutely no place in the NHS. To all the families that have suffered so gravely, I am sorry."

Javid offered reassurances that NHS staff responsible for the "serious and repeated failures" would be held to account. "There is also an active police investigation, Operation Lincoln, which is looking at around 600 cases," he said.

DCS Damian Barratt, of West Mercia police, said on Wednesday the investigation was "very much active".

"No arrests have been made and no charges have been brought, however we are engaging with the Crown Prosecution Service as our inquiries continue," he said. "We will be fully reviewing the findings of the report and feeding appropriate elements into our investigation.

"We do not underestimate the impact the report's findings and our ongoing investigation has on the families involved, who have suffered unimaginable trauma and grief that they still live with today."

The combination of an obsession with "natural births" rather than caesarean sections with a shocking lack of staff, training and oversight of maternity wards resulted in a toxic culture in which mothers and babies died needlessly for 20 years while "repeated failures" were ignored again and again.

It meant some babies were stillborn, died shortly after birth or were left severely brain damaged, while others suffered horrendous skull fractures or avoidable broken bones. Some babies developed cerebral palsy after traumatic forceps deliveries, while others were starved of oxygen and experienced life-changing brain injuries.

Julie Rowlings, whose daughter Olivia died after 23 hours of labour following a consultant's use of forceps, said: "I feel like after 20 years, my daughter finally has a voice.

"For every family out there, every family that's come forward, this is for them. Justice is coming. For every baby, justice is coming."

The report, led by the maternity expert Donna Ockenden, examined cases involving 1,486 families between 2000 and 2019, and reviewed 1,592 clinical incidents. In one case, the trust had kept crucial clinical information on post-it notes, which were then swept into the bin by cleaners.

"Throughout our final report we have highlighted how failures in care were repeated from one incident to the next," she said. "For example, ineffective monitoring of foetal growth and a culture of reluctance to perform caesarean sections resulted in many babies dying during birth or shortly after their birth.

"In many cases, mothers and babies were left with lifelong conditions as a result of their care and treatment. The reasons for these failures are clear. There were not enough staff, there was a lack of ongoing training, there was a lack of effective investigation and governance at the trust and a culture of not listening to the families involved.

"There was a tendency of the trust to blame mothers for their poor outcomes, in some cases even for their own deaths. What is astounding is that for more than two decades these issues have not been challenged internally and the trust was not held to account by external bodies.

"This highlights that systemic change is needed locally, and nationally, to ensure that care provided to families is always professional and compassionate, and that teams from ward to board are aware of and accountable for the values and standards that they should be upholding. Going forward, there can be no excuses."

Ockenden's team of investigators found families were locked out of reviews into deaths and were mistreated by callous maternity staff.

The trust, which is now ranked inadequate, repeatedly failed to adequately monitor baby's heart rates, with catastrophic results, alongside not using drugs properly in labour. Trust leaders and midwives also pursued a lethal strategy of deliberately keeping caesarean section rates low, despite the fact this repeatedly had severe consequences.

Ockenden identified nine areas – and 60 actions – for learning and improvement at the trust, including management of patient safety, patient and family involvement in care and investigations, complaints processes, and staffing.

In addition, 15 "immediate and essential actions" for all maternity services in England were put forward, covering 10 key areas, including that NHS England must commit to a long-term investment plan to ensure the "provision of a well-staffed workforce".

Louise Barnett, the chief executive at the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, said: "We offer our wholehearted apologies for the pain and distress caused by our failings as a trust." The NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin clinical commissioning group (CCG) said it deeply regretted the "horrific experiences these families went through and that we failed to provide the care they deserved".

But Kayleigh Griffiths, whose daughter Pippa died in 2016, said words from the trust "aren't going to be enough". "Once we stop getting stories [which we've had] right up until today of poor care in SaTH, we're not going to be settled that any improvements have been made," she said.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) described the report's findings as "appalling". "Each of these cases is a family tragedy, with some affected more than once," its chief executive, Andrea Sutcliffe, said.

[Tamas]

People doing their bit to help Russia by keeping oil prices high:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/02/protesters-continue-block-uk-terminals-arrests-just-stop-oil

[Sheilbh]

FFS - the lack of joined up thinking here is so annoying. We're dancing on the edge of accusing China of committing genocide, on foreign and defence policy the government (and opposition) basically recognise China as a menace and want to work with allies to help contain them - but when it comes to hoovering up British tech companies we're absolutely thrilled to help out

I saw people online, not inaccurately, say it's all a bit like the Rolls Royce jet engines we sold to the Soviets in 1946 because we desperately needed the cash only to later discover the USSR reverse engineered them and now basically used that model to power their MiGs (in the MoD: "this is the one thing we didn't want to happen")

My view is that the default basically needs to be that this stuff is not for sale to Russian or Chinese companies/groups. I just don't know how, when we know that China views semiconductor as a strategic need, we can say there's not enough security concerns.

It reminds me of the story of Habeck's review of Nordstream II and the bureaucratic rationale for Germany blocking that which was that, apparently, all previous reviews of Nordstream II was only interested in "energy security" aspects and did not include geopolitical risk as part of the assessment. It seems like the same sort of thing here - if you draw the terms of reference tightly enough you don't have to actually do anything, which is always the preferred option

UK ministers quietly approve Chinese microchip factory takeover
Nexperia, a Dutch subsidiary of the Chinese technology company Wingtech, engineered a takeover of Newport Wafer Fab last spring.
By Eleni Courea
April 1, 2022 4:09 am

LONDON — The U.K. government has quietly approved the controversial sale of a Welsh microchip factory to a Chinese-owned firm.

Ministers have decided not to intervene in the takeover of Newport Wafer Fab, which makes semiconductors, following a review by the government's national security adviser, Stephen Lovegrove.

More than six months after he was asked to examine the sale, Lovegrove concluded there were not enough security concerns to block it, according to two government officials.

The decision has already caused alarm among security experts and backlash from Tory MPs who believe the government is employing too narrow a definition of national security.

Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said: "It's not clear why we haven't used our new powers under the National Security and Investment Act to fully review the takeover of one of our leading compound semiconductor companies."

He added: "This is an area where China is sinking billions to compete. The government has no clear strategy to protect what's left of our semiconductor industry."

Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader and a long-standing critic of the Chinese government, said the decision was "ridiculous." "Kwasi Kwarteng needs to stand up for access to key technologies in the West which China is determined to get control over," he said, referring to the the U.K.'s business secretary.

Duncan Smith warned: "If the government goes down this road, it will become yet another step in the pathetic process of appeasing China who right now is supporting Russia and plans to pose a direct and deliberate threat to the West's access to microchips and other key components for electronic equipment."

No.10 Downing Street said it did not comment on national security assessments. An official at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: "We reserve the right to intervene under National Security and Investment Act if there are national security concerns."

Threat to 'long-term capability'

The decision is likely to spark fresh concern over the role of Chinese-linked firms in crucial British industries.

Newport Wafer Fab is the U.K.'s largest semiconductor plant. Semiconductors, also known as microchips or chips, are an essential component of electronic devices.

Nexperia, a Dutch subsidiary of the Chinese technology company Wingtech, engineered a takeover of Newport Wafer Fab last spring despite calls for Kwarteng to intervene at the time.

A former security official who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the decision said: "What Newport Wafer Fab do at the moment is not that exceptional — you can argue that it's not strategically important, and that's a plausible case."

"But it is part of an existing industrial base which is capable of developing further at a lower cost, and if you sell it to the Chinese, then it's gone from your strategic orbit of control and long-term capability," they added.

In July, Boris Johnson unexpectedly announced he had asked Lovegrove to look again at the sale.

Over the summer Ciaran Martin, the U.K.'s former cybersecurity chief, said there were "very real concerns" about the buyout and that it posed a greater threat than allowing Chinese telecoms firm Huawei to build the U.K.'s 5G network, another issue that sparked deep controversy in the U.K.

Tony Abbott, the former Australian prime minister and an adviser to the U.K. board of trade, said at the time that the sale "would not go ahead were it happening in Australia."

Lovegrove's review was prolonged into 2022 to allow ministers to intervene using new powers introduced by the U.K.'s fledgling National Security and Investment Act if necessary. They have concluded there is no need to act, but insist the case will continue to be monitored.

Lovegrove reached the same conclusion as the deputy national security adviser who initially looked at the takeover, according to one of the serving government officials cited above. The official said Newport Wafer Fab uses 20-year-old technology which the Chinese already have.

Ten deals involving various countries are currently being reviewed under the act, which was introduced to strengthen the government's powers to block hostile foreign investment. Separately Kwarteng has ordered the competition watchdog to conduct a national security review into the takeover of Perpetuus, a graphene manufacturer, by a China-linked buyer.

Catherine West, the Labour deputy chair of the all-party parliamentary group on China, said it was "deeply concerning that the U.K. government appears to be giving the green light for a Chinese owned firm buying a British business of such importance" and said she would be writing to ministers.

It's a bit like energy given the vast amount of manufacturing for renewables that comes out of China - and particularly Xinjiang - we need to build and make sure we have our own strategic manufacturers in those sectors. On energy at the minute it feels like there is a risk of accidentally swapping dependnece on Russian oil and gas for dependence on China for renewables manufacturing capacity.

[Sheilbh]

Another excellent Times report on sexual assault allegations about a Tory MP (plus photo of that MP with a pile of coke):

Tory MP David Warburton suspended after sex and drugs allegations
David Warburton has whip removed following claims that raise fresh questions about women's safety in the House of Commons
Gabriel Pogrund
Saturday April 02 2022, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times

David Warburton, the MP for Somerton and Frome, had called in the House of Commons for international action in "tackling the drugs trade"

The picture instantly conveys the mismatch between his public persona and his behaviour behind closed doors.

David Warburton, the Conservative MP for Somerton and Frome, sits in a dimly lit room with a whisky on the rocks, his eyes dazed and his chin resting on his fist. In the foreground sitting atop an upturned baking tray: four lines of cocaine. He is said to have snorted "line after line after line" of the drug at the London home of a younger woman in the early hours of February 1. He had met her through politics and allegedly insisted on coming over, despite evidence that she was drunk.

Hours earlier Warburton, a 56-year-old married father of two and former businessman, had asked the woman to order the class A drugs on his behalf, telling her he would pay for them. According to an audio recording, he dismissed the suggestion that paying £160 for two grams was "spenny" — expensive — and said it was "quite good actually".

Only a few years ago, in the House of Commons, Warburton condemned the "appalling" exploitation of young people involved in the sale of drugs and the "intimidation, violence and criminal incentives" they face. He has also called for international action in "tackling the drugs trade" and criticised "double standards" in politics. He is a former music teacher and businessman, whose pursuits in his Somerset safe seat include litter-picking with the elderly and volunteering as an organist at his local church.

Sex harassment claims

His apparent misconduct eight weeks ago did not stop with drugs. He allegedly would not leave the woman's home.

She recounts that as she became less drunk she grew uncomfortable that the pair were alone together and retreated to her bedroom to put on her pyjamas in an attempt to encourage his departure. When she emerged, she says, Warburton was naked. He allegedly explained that he always slept nude and climbed into her bed. Fearful of how he might react, she did not push him away, she says, or demand that he leave.

Despite her repeated and explicit warnings, before and during his visit, that she did not want to have sex with him or do anything sexual, Warburton allegedly ground his body against hers and groped her breasts. The woman says she lay frozen until the MP fell asleep, snoring loudly.

The following morning Warburton is said to have woken up and asked her if she was "proud" that an MP had slept at her home. She says she showed him the door, then had a long shower. She felt ashamed and violated. At 1.50pm he sent her a WhatsApp message asking if she was available and stating: "Promise I won't remove all my clothes again." The pair have not met since.

The woman did not make a complaint to the police or any other authority. She says Warburton was a powerful man and she would not have known which course of action to take. She also says she wanted to forget about the incident.

However, two other women have taken action against similar conduct by Warburton. Both former aides, they had to sidestep his parliamentary office, in no small part because the person responsible for handling HR issues is his wife, Harriet, whom he employs on a publicly funded salary that could be up to £51,000 a year.

They instead approached the parliamentary authorities, who, it can be revealed, are investigating Warburton in relation to these two formal complaints.

Like the first woman, both complainants to the Commons independent complaints and grievance scheme (IGCS) accuse him of unwanted sexual comments and sexual touching. The scheme was set up in 2019 after the MeToo crisis in Westminster. Available to any member of parliamentary staff past or present, it is designed to create a confidential process for handling bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct allegations, without the direct involvement of MPs.

The women complaining about Warburton said he had boasted about his consumption of cocaine and told them he kept the drug in his taxpayer-funded flat a short walk from Westminster. One woman has been on sick leave since an incident in which he allegedly touched and kissed her. The other has been moved to a female MP's parliamentary office.

£100,000 loan

Warburton is not only alleged to be a risk to women. Evidence suggests his conduct could fall short of the rules governing standards and transparency in public life. He borrowed £100,000 from a Russian businessman without declaring it, a decision that could lead to an investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for standards.

The man who lent him the money is Roman Joukovski, a financial adviser who has specialised in offshore tax advice and providing tier-one "golden" investor visas to foreign citizens, including oligarchs and the family of Kazakhstan's dictator. In 2014 Financial Conduct Authority refused to certify him as a "fit and proper person", limiting his ability to provide certain kinds of financial advice, and one of his businesses was recently forced into insolvency after a separate FCA ruling.

Warburton knew about Joukovski's past problems with the regulator, but took the loan via an offshore entity linked to the businessman's family trust. He later brought the Russian-born British citizen into the Palace of Westminster and used his parliamentary email address to organise meetings for Joukovski, including one with Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunities secretary, who was a backbencher at the time in 2017. According to a source with direct knowledge of the transaction, Warburton has since repaid the money at high levels of interest.

Parliamentary rules state that MPs must register an interest, in this case a loan, within 28 days if it has any bearing on their parliamentary activities. If an MP has any doubt about whether an interest should be declared, they are advised to do so. At no point has Warburton disclosed any details of his financial relationship with Joukovski.

MPs' misconduct

This afternoon the Conservative Party suspended Warburton. The Whips' Office said: "David Warburton MP has had the Conservative Party whip removed while the investigation is ongoing."

These disclosures come the week after Charlie Elphicke, a former Tory MP and convicted sex offender, dropped his legal action against The Sunday Times, which named him as an alleged rapist in 2018. The newspaper spent the next four years defending the story in the face of a lawsuit, justifying it in part because of important questions about the way politics works.

The judge who sentenced Elphicke said he had used his "status and respectability" as an MP as cover for his misconduct. The allegations against Warburton suggest he was doing the same and raise the same questions about how power is used and abused in parliament: Are young women safe in a place that is supposed to be a beacon of democracy? Do politicians abide by the letter or spirit of the rules they set? Does the opaque, old-fashioned world of Westminster help or hinder vulnerable people trying to hold the powerful to account?

Warburton's story

The MP's Westminster career began in May 2015, when he was elected in Somerton and Frome, an affluent and mostly rural constituency neighbouring Rees-Mogg's. The seat had been held by the Lib Dems, but their national collapse converted it into an ultra-safe Tory seat overnight. Warburton was elected with a majority of about 20,000.

The new MP was an ideal ambassador for David Cameron's Conservative Party. A middle-aged family man with moderate politics, he had grown up in Reading and been educated at a grammar. His wife was the daughter of a former British consul general in Los Angeles, and the first cousin once removed of Lord Butler of Brockwell, the private secretary to five prime ministers.

Having studied at the Royal College of Music and begun his career as a music teacher, Warburton had switched to business, focusing on mobile phone technology. The self-made millionaire gave a nod to the sector in his maiden speech in the Commons, calling for improved broadband access for his seat. He signed off by quoting Walter Bagehot, the essayist and a former resident of his constituency, saying: "The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

Soon Warburton was doing just that. Despite criticism from opponents and his own reported opposition to the practice, he employed his wife as his official staff member after his election, later defending her salary as being "pretty tremendous value" to him and taxpayers alike.

The controversy did not have any lasting impact. Warburton became a low-key presence in parliament, sitting on all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) that matched his interests — among them the group for music, which he chaired — and deferring to the Tory whip on most votes. He continued to keep his head down under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, surfacing only during Dominic Cummings's Barnard Castle controversy to say that those who make the laws should not break them. In a pointed intervention he revealed that his father had died alone amid rising Covid-19 cases.

Living recklessly

During the pandemic, Warburton's life changed. He increasingly spent time away from home, in his taxpayer-funded flat in County Hall, across the Thames from parliament. His wife remained in Somerset caring for their children. Then, in January last year, Warburton posted a photograph revealing he had lost eight stone by lifting weights and avoiding carbohydrates. His selfie prompted congratulations from the prime minister, the health secretary and others.

Warburton was living increasingly recklessly. He started sending suggestive texts to at least one younger woman whom he had met through politics but did not work for him last year. It also appears that he took cocaine, writing to the woman in November to say: "Yep have some cheeky coke obvs." Last month he texted her saying: "Does your dealer do Westminster Bridge area!?" He added: "Have just been put on a one line-whip" — meaning that he was not obliged to participate in votes in the Commons that day — "so your happy Monday has made me want to call my dealer ... but he takes aeons."

The two women who have reported him allege that Warburton started behaving inappropriately towards them too, both in parliament and at late-night events in and around Westminster. The conduct varied in its severity. He is said to have subjected one female aide to months of sexualised comments, telling her he would have slept with her had they been the same age and refusing to stop calling her "baby". At the British Kebab awards, a boozy event in Westminster attended by MPs and young researchers, he allegedly groped her thigh in an incident witnessed by another person.

The two women allege that Warburton pressured them into drinking more alcohol than they were comfortable with and that he coerced them into returning to his flat. In one incident alleged to have taken place this year, he told an aide to return with him to the property, where, against her will, he allegedly kissed her forehead, stroked her hair, placed his hand on her thigh and repeatedly rubbed it. The other female staff member recounted an incident in which he had caressed her and refused to let her leave his home, marshalling her back inside when she sought to leave.

In the wake of the MeToo movement all parties agreed that employment practices in Westminster needed to change. Yet only a minority argued that MPs should not be able directly to hire or fire researchers or be stripped of responsibility for their line management and progression. Many conceded that this system was inherently dangerous: MPs effectively wielded total power, did not have to report to any outside board or authority on internal HR issues, and did not have to report on employee satisfaction or retention to any public or semi-public body. Calls for fundamental reform fizzled out.

Warburton appears to have benefited from this inaction — and the fact that he had employed his wife after his election. By 2017, appointing a spouse to a taxpayer-funded parliamentary role had been banned, other than for those who already employed family members. Last December Warburton indicated he had no plans to suspend her contract, declaring to a local reporter that he was "delighted" with her performance. He disclosed that she was responsible for HR in his office, stating: "Since being elected, she's added to that all marketing and press, PR, my constituency diary, all administration, liaison with local groups, schools, businesses, campaigns, management of all staff and expenses."

This created a perverse set of circumstances for those on the receiving end of his alleged misconduct. Not only would they have to report their powerful boss to another person over whom he too had authority, but that person would be his wife, who was presumably unaware of his apparent infidelity and alleged conduct. She was based in the constituency much of the time, meaning she would not have witnessed any of his conduct or been able to act to protect complainants.

This is why one staffer did not feel comfortable telling anyone internally about her months of alleged harassment or asking for help before matters spiralled out of control, instead signing herself off on indefinite sick leave.

Both have since formally reported their allegations to the ICGS. In doing so, they know that Warburton is likely to be notified that he is under investigation via the parliamentary standards commissioner in due course, and that it is unlikely they will ever be able to return to his office. Last week the ICGS appointed investigating officers to the women's cases.

Once the ICGS has completed its investigation it will refer its findings to an independent expert panel composed of eight members, including former barristers, judges and experienced members of other adjudication bodies. Yet investigations can take a long time and are subject to appeal. Only once a final decision is reached will an MP face formal, public sanction. Until then, and unless parties are forced to take action because of publicity, MPs are free to walk around the Palace of Westminster with impunity and without others knowing about the misconduct of which they are accused.

Even when allegations are aired, parties are increasingly reluctant to suspend MPs pre-emptively or as a precautionary measure. There is no set or rules or published guidance which political parties or whip's offices follow in determining when or whether to suspend an MP.

The Russian connection

Warburton's financial dealings with the Russian businessman, Joukovski, while an MP present the possibility of a referral to parliament's anti-sleaze watchdog.

Based in Hampstead, north London, Joukovski, 53, has tended to appear in the public domain for the wrong reasons. Last year his boutique wealth management company, Dolfin Financial UK Ltd was forced to file for insolvency after the FCA banned it from engaging in regulated activity. The regulator deemed the company had "dishonestly or recklessly provided misleading information" to investors.

His company, Dolfin, had specialised in securing tier-one investment visas or "golden visas" for foreign citizens — a type of document that has been cancelled because of concerns that applicants including Russian oligarchs had not been adequately vetted and that their money had been made illegally. The business was closed in part because of the handling of the case of a relative of Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's longstanding dictator and a Putin ally. The FCA separately found that the company had used a network of firms to create a system that allowed "entrepreneurs" to sidestep the £2 million requirement to obtain golden visas.

It is unclear precisely when Warburton and Joukovski became friends. Towards the start of 2017, a source with direct knowledge of events says, Warburton took out a loan of more than £100,000 that carried a high rate of interest. They did not dispute that the money was paid out of an offshore entity of which Joukovski was a beneficiary, and into Warburton's personal account.

According to emails, in October Warburton brokered a meeting between the Russian and his friend Rees-Mogg, which took place in the Pugin Room in the Commons. A friend of Joukovski claimed the pair had an interesting discussion but that it was simply a chance encounter in a parliamentary bar. Presented with evidence that it was arranged using Warburton and Rees-Mogg's parliamentary emails, the friend withdrew their initial version of events. Joukovski would not comment. Emails reveal that at the time the meeting took place Warburton knew that the FCA did not deem Joukovski to be fit and proper.

The MP also made a request for him to be added to an APPG mailing list for those interested in blockchain, a financial technology the Russian was interested in.

It is understood that Joukovski insists that he did not expect or ask for any favours in return for the loan.

It is understood that Warburton repaid the loan this year.

The arrangement is one of many incidents which pose questions about Warburton's conduct — but also the system he inhabits.

Seven years after he declared that life was about doing what others say you cannot do, and five after MeToo prompted a serious but fleeting discussion about rule-breaking in Westminster, it appears the often self-regulating world of SW1 did little to frustrate him.

Warburton did not respond to requests for comment on the loan. He also refused to comment on the allegations. However, the Sunday Telegraph reported he had said: "I have enormous amounts of defence, but unfortunately the way that things work means that doesn't come out first.

"I have heard nothing whatsoever from the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme. I'm sorry, I can't comment any further."

[Josquius]

People doing their bit to help Russia by keeping oil prices high:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/02/protesters-continue-block-uk-terminals-arrests-just-stop-oil

Those guys are counter productive idiots but their their message is valid. Europe should be using this opportunity to invest in moving away from fossil fuels rather than just looking to replace Russia.

[Tamas]

People doing their bit to help Russia by keeping oil prices high:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/02/protesters-continue-block-uk-terminals-arrests-just-stop-oil

Those guys are counter productive idiots but their their message is valid. Europe should be using this opportunity to invest in moving away from fossil fuels rather than just looking to replace Russia.

Message aside, messing with the oil supply right now can only mean one thing: price hikes, which helps Russia continue the war.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah. Given the state of the discourse on trans people in general and the UK in specific, it's encouraging to see the support from the Conservative party on this. Honestly, it is not what I would've expected.

Just to come back to this and how much of the fighting on this in the UK is within the left, today has been another day of Guardian columnist on columnist abuse over trans issues.

Similarly I have a friend who's an academic and in the universities'/academics' union - they've been on strike action on and off for the last year or so largely over pensions but also diversity and race issues particularly. For their upcoming conference there are two competing motions on whether the union should support a union member who is "gender critical" and being criticised for that by students, management, activists etc or if the union should back a trans rights position even if that means not providing support to a union member but supporting/being in solidarity with outside groups. I'd expect the trans rights motion to win, probably quite comfortably, but apparently both motions are attracting a huge amount of heated debate on both sides (and some cisgender women who broadly back the trans rights position but are warning that the motion risks disproportionately affecting women more than men).

My suspicion is there is something to the point that in the US you have a religious society and religious conservatives, but basically no Equal Rights Amendment or significant employment protections, which shapes that debate. While in the UK, there's not really a religious right and we're not a particularly religious society, but you absolutely have employment rights, sex-based protections for women, equalities legislation which can create clashes/competing legal rights and protections - but all ultimately come from the left. And that leads to fights in the Guardian editorial room (several people on both sides have left the Guardian over this issue) and in unions. And it's worth noting that in terms of actual attitudes if not discourse, attitudes on trans rights in the UK are far more liberal than in the US as you'd expect.

[Sheilbh]

Re. the United Kingdom:

*Walter Bloomberg
@DeItaone
UK FINANCE MINISTRY SAYS CHANCELLOR HAS ASKED UK ROYAL MINT TO CREATE AN NFT, TO BE ISSUED BY THE SUMMER.

Edit: On the other hand - quite intrigued by government opening up a revenue stream by selling people jpgs made by the Royal Mint. Like the lottery it's a tax on stupidity - but in this case the stupid and wealth

[Jacob]

Like the lottery it's a tax on stupidity...

A tax on hope. A tax on day-dreaming.

[Sheilbh]

Fair - and I'm more idiotic than most. I buy lottery tickets too, but only when it's rolled over a few time and there's a huge jackpot - not for smaller, but, for someone with no assets/savings, equally life changing sums

[Richard Hakluyt]

I buy lottery tickets too on occasion, when the jackpot has reached £80m or so. I then reflect on the potential annoyances of winning and the fact that I can essentially do what I want anyway.....so it is worthwhile imo 

[Jacob]

I think I mentioned one of my wife's former bosses... retired senior equity shareholder at her company (equiv. to senior partner at a law firm). Appartment in Paris, several properties across Canada, enjoying life in retirement, very well set up.

Bought a lottery ticket on a whim (as you do) while picking up leeks for a soup his wife was cooking. Won $7 million. On asked how it would change his life, he answered "it won't really."

Jerk

[Sheilbh]

I once won £10 when I was a kid. That and picking the winner of the Grand National when I was 8 are the peaks of my gambling success

Although I'm similar to RH when I imagine what I'd do with that money I realise how relatively limited my ambitions are - pay off my parents' mortgage, buy a house, have nicer holidays. I suppose they'd grow with money.