Boris may have caused a British Iranian woman’s sentence in Iran to be doubled to 10 years by something Liam Fox calls ‘ a slip of the tongue’.The woman was on holiday with her family in Iran when she was accused of spying. Johnson said she was there teaching journalism which the Iranian authorities leapt on as spreading propaganda. I don’t think May will give him the boot. She fears him too much to let him loose. Meanwhile, the UK, and this poor woman, have to endure the repercussions of his ‘slips of the tongue’.
Sounds awful but apparently what works best in Iran (and many other countries) is knowing who to bribe and how much to pay them.
Petitions do not work magic.
Boris is not the entire FO!
Am sure that they are doing all they can for British citizens,
But look what they are up against in Iran.
Being emotional would not work in the interests of these prisoners.
"Why impartially?
Does the man have no feelings?"
DJ - you use that phrase quite often, don't you? Are only your feelings valid?
I am sure the word impartially was used as a balm given the Iranian regime is not open to any sort of criticism. It could just be that he is trying (for a change) a bit of diplomacy?
There are several being held in Iran, not just around the world. Some have been held there for years; a grandfather, Kamal Foroughi, 77 years old has been there for seven years.
So suddenly Boris has discovered that he needs to work very hard and intensively to try and free these people.
The two families took a petition to the foreign office together a year ago.
What happened to that?
Impartially, probably means that no one case takes precedence over another, as there are several British citizens being held around the world.
Gove is quite precise and measured ( with words) so I think it meant ( when asked by Marr ‘what was she doing in Iran’?)
He answered ‘I don’t know’ which must mean precisely that, he doesn’t know, which is an honest answer.
durhamjen actually, T May ‘being a woman’ will not cut any ice with Iranians.
"Keir Starmer told the Today programme that while Boris should have been fired a while ago, “we should all reflect on what Richard is saying this morning”. Professor Mads Andenas, a former UN special rapporteur on arbitrary detention, also told Today that Government ministers should “be consistent in not casting doubt on her story”. “From my point of view it looks like a cock-up. They haven’t taken the briefing notes seriously,” he said. In Brussels this morning, Boris said: “We are working very, very hard and intensively and impartially on all those cases”. Note the word ‘impartially’. "
Why impartially?
Does the man have no feelings?
"Boris Johnson’s Iran blunder continues to undermine his reputation, but today he has been thrown a political lifeline by Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of imprisoned British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratciffe. Showing a dignity and understanding that some Tory MPs believe our Foreign Secretary lacks, Ratcliffe told the BBC that he didn’t want Boris to be sacked – because he could do more good by actually now trying to get his wife released. They spoke last night for the first time (which is extraordinary in itself given how long she’s been jailed) and hope to meet face to face this week. In what could be a significant move, Boris told him Zaghari-Ratcliffe could be ‘eligible’ for ‘diplomatic protection’. If she is indeed protected, his political career could survive."
Why has it taken this long to realise?
Surely May could take over from Johnson in this one case and talk to the Iranians as a leader and a woman.
They have to get her out of Iran.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/12/woman-jailed-in-iran-shocked-by-boris-johnsons-comments-her-husband-says
Even Gove today was not on message. He said he didn't know why she was in Iran. He must be the only person in the country who doesn't.
Andrew Marr was bemused and told him that her husband said she was on holiday visiting her family; Gove then decided he ought to be family friendly, before saying he thought Boris was doing a good job in the foreign office.
So that's two of them lost support, I hope.
I just watched the video from the House of Commons. I thought Boris Johnson was supposed to be charming? Why wont he just say that he is sorry that he was mistaken. I think he has realised that his ambition to be PM is not likely to happen now.
But it's NOT independent, is it?
Ipso was set up in 2014 by some UK national newspapers in response to calls for a tougher system of self-regulation following Lord Justice Leveson’s 2012 inquiry into phone hacking. According to the FT, anyway.
It's really got nothing to do with what I think is important!
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-iran-diplomatic-ties-nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-prison-release-secure-nobel-peace-prize-lawyer-a8048951.html
Who made up the fake news that Nazanin was training journalists?
"Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the Daily Mail as a source for the website in all but exceptional circumstances after deeming the news group “generally unreliable”.
The move is highly unusual for the online encyclopaedia, which rarely puts in place a blanket ban on publications and which still allows links to sources such as Kremlin backed news organisation Russia Today, and Fox News, both of which have raised concern among editors.
The editors described the arguments for a ban as “centred on the Daily Mail’s reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism and flat-out fabrication”. "
That's okay. I don't bother with the Sun or the Daily Mail, either.
None of the papers I read are members of IPSO, not the Guardian, Observer, the i or the Financial Times.
Tells me a lot that you think IPSO, and therefore, the Sun and Daily Mail, more important than the House of Commons.
I don't bother with any links from sites that willfully spread fake news. It's the words that are usually the problem, Jen.
Primrose, the video is from the House of Commons. I don't think that could be fake news, do you?
That's the one I meant. Do you have a problem with the 11 other board members? Or any of the complaints committee, who actually deal with the rulings? Just because you don't like one board member, doesn't mean fake news is not fake news.
It all makes my heart sink. The Brexit negotiations are the most important thing at present and the cabinet is tottering and fragmented just when it needs to be strong.
TBH it is all quite embarrassing - I think we are a laughing stock.
IPSO, independent press regulator with Trevor Kavanagh on the board? Is that the one you meant, primrose, the independent regulator run by a former political editor of the Sun who regularly writes anti-muslim articles?
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-joseph-mifsud_uk_5a081ba6e4b01d21c83ef6b3
This is the man that Johnson says he hasn't met.
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