Momentum are getting stronger

My post was to bags

Did you also know that he has been reprimanded more than once for failing to declare his financial interests in debates when he put forward arguments that supported his financial interest?

Oh well all adds the the hundred of millions I suppose.

I am not the only one who is supicious of Rees-Mogg's denial of all knowledge of the BTG's values and objectives. The BTG itself re-published an article that strongly implied Rees-Mogg pleaded ignorance of the Group because he was leaned on by senior Conservatives.

You say "I will continue to think both JRM and JC are decent men until they are proved guilty of actual crimes." On every political thread on which you have posted you have been consistently critical of Corbyn and Momentum. I realise you are trying to demonstrate neutrality but your Gransnet political input indicates otherwise.

I don't think Rees-Mogg is the devil incarnate but I do think he's a very blinkered and backward-looking man who believes in a hierarchical social and political system based on lineage, and achieved by means of legitimising and reinforcing inequality.

But before I do, just think! Until a few weeks ago all I knew about Jacob Rees-Mogg is that he existed. Such an education, Gransnet is.

Oh good, it's moved on to the dreaded Farage. I'll bugger off now.

"whose intention is to influence UK policy"

There are lots of organisations that want to influence UK policy. That's not a crime either.

Whether they do have any influence is another matter, but they have every right to try if they think it's important enough.

TBG seems, so far, to have had bugger all influence on repatriations and immigration so I'm not going to start panicking about them yet.

I think I've got the message that you think JRM is nit far short of a devil incarnate, eloethan.

He was on the other evening and in my view came close to inciting riot and violence.

It was most certainly not a good thing that the BBC was so keen to offer umpteen opportunities for the appalling Nigel Farage to air his poisonous views for so many years. The BBC has a lot to answer for. Extreme views like his, if given the oxygen of publicity, can be dangerous and destructive.

I don't think a list of every dinner with every politician with people who hold 'extreme' views would be a good use of my time or add anything to a debate.

I think it's part of their job to engage with people who are extreme. It keeps them inside the political process and helps them to feel heard, which is a good thing.

From The Times:

Jeremy Corbyn faced controversy last night after it emerged that he spent part of Monday evening with a journalist who denies the Srebrenica genocide, defends the Assad regime and suggests that the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox could have been a conspiracy.

Mr Corbyn was pictured at a restaurant in his constituency of Islington north with Marcus Papadopoulos, a frequent contributor to Russian state television. Mr Papadopoulos said that they had spent the evening together but a Labour spokesman said that Mr Corbyn’s party had been joined only briefly by the controversial journalist.

Is this brief meeting at a restaurant with a man who has no direct influence on British politics the same as being invited as guest-of-honour to a black tie dinner - held by a UK group whose intention is to influence UK policy, and one of whose senior officers calls for voluntary re-patriation from the UK of non-EU migrants?

You have already decided that JRM is guilty of all sorts of heinousness, elo. Your posts make multiple assumptions about what he knew about TBG and whether or not he agreed with what they stood for in any or all of their points. (I visited their website already). I do not count your speculations as actual evidence of his heinousness just as I don't count stories about Jeremy Corbyn's 'support' for the IRA and other reprehensible organisations as actual evidence of heinousness on his part. I will continue to think both JRM and JC are decent men until they are proved guilty of actual crimes. Thank god it is not yet a crime in this country to be a Conservative politician or a Labour one. Or any other kind, come to that.

Yes, quite Primrose.

Eh?!

This is pretty old news and I think dinners with unsavoury people happen all the time in politics

twitter.com/DrMarcusP/status/884548810638274568

I've just seen your post of 17.04 Baggs.

So Rees-Mogg accepts an invitation to be guest-of-honour at a dinner for a group about which he knows nothing. He doesn't know anything about the aims of the group, the views of its senior officers or of the other invited guests. Really?

Or could it be, as the article re-published on the BTG website suggested, that Rees-Mogg suddenly realised he needed to plead ignorance of the group's pernicious aims. The reference to him being clearly under instruction from whimpering Cnservative officials suggests that the BTG's view was also that Rees-Mogg was fully aware of what the group stood for.

eleothan They strike me as the worst possible people. I simply can't imagine a single person I know -even a couple of shire Tory friends died in the wool Tories wouldn't touch them with a barge poll.

To accept a dinner invitation and attend whilst being clueless as to whom my hosts were stretches credibility beyond belief.

Baggs This is what was posted on the Traditional Britain Group website:

Jacob Rees-Mogg, M.P., was the guest-of-honour at the Traditional Britain Group’s packed Annual Dinner on Friday 17th May 2013, held at London’s prestigious East India Club. Also present was Lord Kilclooney of Armagh, possibly better known to many as John Taylor, former Ulster Unionist M.P., and Monday Club member

Mr. Rees-Mogg expressed his disappointment with the EU, with his party’s attempts to redefine marriage and with abortion-on-demand, but toed the Party line on other matters. Gregory Lauder-Frost, our Vice-President, presided and thanked Mr.Rees-Mogg on behalf of the TBG presenting him with a gift from us

Some time later the British Tradional Group published an article from the Libertarian relating to the controversy that Rees-Mogg's guest appearance at the BTG had caused. Some extracts:

In recent days, the British media has relished slamming Conservative Member of Parliament Jacob Rees-Mogg for addressing a dinner which was hosted earlier this year by the Traditional Britain Group (TBG)...

..."Rees-Mogg was hauled onto Newsnight and questioned. The Old Etonian, clearly under instruction from whimpering conservative officials, said that it had been a serious mistake to attend the dinner and that he had nothing whatsoever to do with them. He has thrown away the credibility he has earned in the Commons for being a genuine, unapologetic and audacious politician, with a likeable eccentricity and a rare talent for oratory. For Rees-Mogg’s many admirers, his response has been bitterly disappointing

Admittedly, the impassioned response posted by the TBG on its Facebook page following the appointment of anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence to the House of Lords, is disconcerting to say the least. The post called for the voluntary repatriation of Lawrence and ‘millions of others’. However, the criticism of Lawrence’s appointment is entirely legitimate and justified

Doreen Lawrence has long been granted the state-sponsored status of infallibility and immunity by the media, driven by fear that any criticism of her might be misconstrued as racist. In the same week that UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom* underwent a thoroughly pointless media assault for alleged “racism”, the attempted prevention of criticism towards Lawrence is just another example of political correctness gone mad.

So with Rees-Mogg receiving a tidal wave of criticism for daring to accept a dinner invitation, with Godfrey Bloom* branded ‘racist’ for making a light-hearted comment, with the TBG smeared by the media and cynical Labour politicians, and with any questioning of Doreen Lawrence’s appointment deemed unthinkable, Britain’s traditional democratic values are under threat......

*Bloom provoked controversy when he talked about British foreign aid going to "bongo-bongo land" - a reference to third world countries.

During a LBC Radio interview in November 2013, he called for the unemployed and public sector workers to lose the right to vote.

Exactly whitewave. I'm not a huge admirer of Gordon Brown but I think his "bigoted woman" comment was said in a moment of annoyance and embarrassment - and was directed at one person who had unwittingly caused him some discomfort, not at her as a representative of a particular group.

The comment by Lauder-Froster that Doreen Lawrence is "a nobody" was entirely consistent with his other preoccupation - immigration - as his proposal:

"non-Europeans living in the UK should be offered "assisted voluntary repatriation".

aptly demonstrates.

Interesting, Baggs !

I have acted on your, ahem, suggestion, gg, and I found this in an Independent newspaper article from 16 August, 2013: "Rees-Mogg strongly rejected [the group*] after its views on race and immigration were reported."

The group* in question being the Traditional Britain Group.

So, there's no need for you to go to the trouble of answering my query, eloethan.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-the-third-man-in-that-traditional-britain-photo-and-what-he-says-about-the-new-loony-right-8771448.html

I phrased my request politely too with assurances that I wasn't contesting what eloethan had said even though, by implication, I hinted that what she said might not be the full story.

GracesgranMk2
^ What did your last servant die of Baggs^
Have you turned into the stunt double of another poster who posts such rude replies?

But I thought asking for more specific information on points that were not clear was standard on these threads? Is it only selected posters who are allowed to make that request?

My underlying point, gg and eloethan and anyone else, is that I don't think talking to someone with reprehensible views is a sin. I think I'm with the sainted Jeremy on that one.

Quite, galen, innit? ?