Government Watch - 2

Football. Sunderland has just sacked its manager.

Perhaps May will put Davis in Fallon's job.

Oh!

I expect she will have to wait and see who else resigns before she does a reshuffle.

Fallon is a remainer isn’t he?

I am surprised he’s resigned just for hand on knee which was apparently donkeys years ago and dealt with very adequately by the woman he insulted.

Wonder if there is other stuff?

Well he's not managed to remain in the cabinet has he? Of course there's more - the question is will it come out? Or is that the deal? Some of us have said that there's such a thing as the tip of an iceberg.

Helen Lewis‏ tweets:
May's top team: Fox (already resigned from Cabinet once); Johnson (already resigned twice) Green (facing allegations); Fallon (gone).

Good lot aren’t they

Such an embarrassment of riches

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-reversing-brexit/

Brexit thread finished, but I thought this might fit here.
Just to annoy Brexiteers a bit more.

Gavin Williamson appointed himself apparently?

Rumour now is he’s after premiership. A remainer.

Blimey that seems to have gone down like a lead balloon.

Me-thinks these are the last few days/months of this government

How would he manage to do that I wonder when he has never held a Govt post before - is he an MP?

What qualifications does he have?
Ex- forces?

No, nothing to do with forces. He's a bit mixed up, though.
He has voted for protecting the green belt, but for high speed rail and for selling off public forests. Obviously he can't see the problem there, because he never rebels against his party.

Just to keep us up to date. Now ex Chief Whip Gavin Williamson has been appointed as the new defence secretary after Sir Michael Fallon's resignation and Julian Smith has been appointed Chief Whip in his place. She has also appointed Esther Mcvey to Deputy Chief Whip.

The appointment of Gavin Williamson has not gone down well in all quarters in the Tory party apparently. He told his local paper that he was "flabbergasted". The loss of Fallon is being seen as leaving May weaker than ever.

She has Brexit and the Brexiteers on one side as a challenge. The ailing NHS and Universal Credit brings her more challenge from the more centrist members of her party and faltering economy with worse to come after Brexit make Hammond feel hogtied when it comes to challenging the Labour Party. Add to this the fact that none of the parties know if anyone else will have to go because of the harassment turmoil and you could almost feel sorry for May - but not quite.

oops sorry - got a phone call in the middle of typing. I should have checked for crossed posts.

So the chief whip who has all the dirt, gets rid of Fallon then grabs his job?

Some are saying that; some are saying they are from the next generation (good thing). I imagine May is lying down in a darkened room.

Killer move by Gavin then. He had the dirt, took Fallon down and then jumped up wagging his tail to replace him.

It's politics so that could be true. On the other hand perhaps Fallon just wanted out before the papers put anything else on their front pages. Apparently - who knows? - there is more.

There is something about him in a drunken brawl with a blond Russian ????????

Either you couldn't make it up or someone did.

Of the three promotions two are from Yorkshire and one from Liverpool so some good. Oh and they are from the younger section of the Tory party (under 60!)

Previous attempts to clean things up blocked by tory back benchers.
www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/revealed-backbenchers-blocked-bid-to-shield-staff-from-sex-pest-mps-a3671276.html

The worst of it is that I wonder how many people are really surprised.

I do think they need to move them out of the Palace of Westminster, into the middle of the country and in normal offices - with a block of rooms and flats for their use when needed. Let them work in a more open atmosphere.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/02/hundreds-of-trainee-gps-facing-hardship-as-outsourcing-firm-capita-fails-to-pay

I hope they didn't vote Tory.

I doubt that a single Tory will worry about the trainee GPs not being able to pay their mortgages Jen. Their ethos - and 'there is no alternative' - is privatisation, outsourcing and profit for the shameless people running these companies. Never mind that there is no sense in trying to create competition within a monopoly or that we may be very short of GPs because of it.

The reply I usually get from people like this is "well it's how it is, isn't it."