Priti Patel deserves her own thread

BJ is safe no doubt about that - another example of what ‘the best education’ results in

I'm afraid you're right whitewave.

I have to agree with your 20:34:12 post maryeliza. There seems to be little sense of doing what's right.

Monica I agree but would just swap the word 'intelligence' for good Yorkshire 'nouse'. The worry is just how many of the current front bench don't have any at all.

"They are usually very clever but completely lacking in intelligence."

Sounds like Boris.

Ooohhhh I like the distinction between being clever and being intelligent

And of course dont forget Damion Green - him with extreme porn (allegedly) on his computer.

What a bunch of low life’s they all are

Maybot is dining with Dacre tonight- says it all really

Ooohhhh I like the distinction between being clever and being intelligent

I like it, too, but unfortunately I always think of it the other way round in that some one could have a tremendous intellect (intelligence) but no common sense (cleverness) at all.

Oh I think intellect is not the same as intelligence and that common sense is not the same as cleverness

Pritti Patel has got what she deserves-the sack

I think this whole saga is very odd and it is quite an extraordinary notion that Priti Patel did all these things completely off her own bat and without anyone else being aware or involved.

Surely, it is not straightforward for someone at her level to be granted a private meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu?

Perhaps PP has been the "fall guy" in all this - though I can't say I care much because there is nothing whatsoever I admire or like about her - and her latest comments about lazy British workers were, I think, disgraceful.

For the life of me I can't work out why she did this.

So many partisan meetings, in a political hot-spot, particularly meeting Netanyahu - even I know that it's not convention to meet above your weight.

I can't believe she is so very stupid - was she brazen or naïve? I can't think the latter or she wouldn't have kept it a secret. Maybe the attention of the Israelis went to her head and made her feel far more important/unassailable than she was

So many questions - I wonder if she'll put herself up to questioning in a newspaper/TV interview.

Eloethan - I've been thinking exactly the same thing. She couldn't have just turned up at the Knesset, knocked on Bibi's door and said Hello - how're you doing? He is well protected, and needs to be.
Then a guided tour of sensitive parts of Israel - security again.
Arrangements must have been made in advance by organisers on both sides.
And if this is the case, what is the Govt. trying to cover up now?

Eloethan I think you might be underestimating the power and influence of the Conservative Friends of Israel - their President Lord Polak set up all these meetings and I’m astonished at how little scrutiny he is being given. PP is virulently anti-Palestine and pro-Israel and also very ambitious - the Israelis must have seen this as a marriage made in heaven. A woman vain enough and stupid enough to be manipulated by men who make Machiavelli look like a pussycat. Imagine their hopes to have her as their woman on the inside pushing their case across the cabinet table. Imagine how important they made her feel, how flattered, how important - well the Israelis and PP and not to mention the eminence gris of LP damn well underestimated just how far they could subvert our democratic system and eventually how much even this government was prepared to have one of its own being manipulated by a foreign government

And if anyone thinks that she just happened to be holiday .....

I thought it had been organised by the Conservative Friends of Israel group.
She left herself completely open to blackmail.

"Stuart Polak, the driving force behind the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), played a pivotal role in Priti Patel’s off-radar meetings with Israeli politicians and organisations.

The CFI’s honorary president arranged a dozen meetings during Patel’s summer holiday in Israel and was in attendance at all but one of them. He also accompanied her to meetings in September with an Israeli minister, Gilad Erdan, and Yuval Rotem, a government official.

Lord Polak has spent 28 years lobbying on behalf of the Israeli state, first as its director, and now – after being ennobled by David Cameron in 2015 – its honorary president. "

Others in the group include Alistair Burt, Liam Fox, Iain Duncan Smith.

Sorry, MaryEliza, I see you've just said that.

Do we know how the details of this trip leaked out?

Does it matter?
The point is it shouldn't have been secret in the first place.

Journalist has been digging

Conservative Friends of Israel is the largest group in parliament. Take your pick over who told on her.
Nadhim Zahawi is one of them, and has been on trips organised by them. I have seen him defending her on the news, but he never said he was a member of the group arranging the meetings. He must have known, as must Liam Fox.

Why are there so many in the group? Don't think they are all jewish. So what's in it for them?

There is also of course a Labour (andLD) friends of Israel. A much smaller % of Labour MPs are members ( about 80% of Tories) and it is said that the LFI are not as uncritical of the Israeli Government compared with the Tories. But I can’t provide evidence for that.

It is also in disputed how much money is given to the Conservatives as a result of all this support either directly or indirectly.probably the same dispute with the other parties as well but the bigger the support it makes sense to assume the bigger donations.

The more you think about this the odder it gets. Watson was saying this morning that Patel visited the British embassy in Israel - so how on earth did no one know?? I’m sure the government is complicit in the whole visit.