Jennifer Arcuri publicly admitting four year affair with Boris Johnson

I wondered if people feel helpless to do or change anything? I am quite angry that the self serving behaviour starts even at town council level here, in fact there has been some appalling voting behaviour from town councillors who have voted against the groups they are supposed to represent (and get paid to do so) but they just get away with it (some of them are running one of the local facebook page and moderate it heavily too) I feel redundant as to what I can do as individual and voting patterns in my area just suggest people blind vote blue but if I was blindly voting blue I'd want people to work for our community and constituents, I'm not convinced my MP does at all.

From James Osben's letter
So let us applaud James Osben, twice Labour’s general election candidate in Newton Abbot, who has not only resigned his membership but issued an open letter to Keir Starmer, explaining his reasons in no uncertain terms.

Here are some of the highlights:

“I am saddened, deeply disappointed and extremely troubled by the Labour Party’s current behaviour and actions in suspending hundreds of members from multiple CLPs.

“I stood as the Parliamentary Candidate in Newton Abbot in 2017 and 2019. Labour came second for the first time ever in this constituency in 2017… I and my friends and colleagues within the Party felt proud of what we achieved and we had hope, like never before, of achieving so much more for our local community.

“Any hope of this being achieved via the Labour party is now gone. You have suspended most of the Newton Abbot CLP officers and many have already resigned.

“Like my friends I will continue with community projects, supporting people who need help but I can no longer do this under the Labour banner when the Labour Party is failing to represent these people.

“I no longer feel that the Labour Party is representing me and the millions of people who need a government that is on their side.

“For the first time ever, I have felt uncomfortable, unsafe and unrepresented in the Labour Party. Why is this? My values have not changed nor have my principles. As Tony Benn once said, we should be signposts and not weathercocks. What has changed within the Labour Party?

“Why are members feeling unsafe, intimidated and fearful? Why does there appear to be a disturbing clampdown on democracy and free speech within the party?

“Thousands of members have resigned. You have suspended hundreds more. What is your aim? What is your purpose? What are your objectives?

“The Labour Party in Newton Abbot has now been severely crippled in the run-up to the May 2021 elections because of the actions of Keir Starmer and David Evans.

“Is it your aim to ensure a Labour Government isn’t elected in 2024? It certainly seems so.”

It’s a long letter and you can read it in full over on Skwawkbox.

Would you like to start a separate thread for Starmer bashing, Grany.

He came second. Well that will have improved the lives of the most vulnerable. Not.

He completely echoes my sentiments Grany and as a lifelong member I left the LP as I felt it no longer represented what I believe in.

I have left the Labour Party too Greeneyedgirl alongside thousands of others for the reasons you stated.

Can you start a different thread about this please, it has no relevance at all to this thread?

Have you not noticed that this thread is about our corrupt Prime Minister?

Not about the royal family or the Labour Party

I feared Starmer wouldn't be that great but hoped I would be proved wrong. I am still in the party but am debating whether to leave. I have been in the party since I was a teenager and I find it all very disappointing and worrying.

Johnson’s private and professional life over many years shows him to be dishonest, self serving and untrustworthy. He gave Jennifer Arcuri over £120,000 of our money. He had some kind of 4 year sexual relationship with her whilst handing over public money. Our money paid for her to accompany him on trips to the USA.
That should be enough to warrant an investigation into misuse of public funds.
He was married during that 4 year period. I’d be amazed if JA was his only extramarital relationship at the time. If he was still a journalist, for example, I’d have no judgement to make about his private life.
I do feel critical and yes judgemental at his misuse of public money when London mayor. Also by the way his government has wasted huge amounts of public money giving their unskilled pals government contracts

Moral compass?

The OP asked a question why does the press not report about Johnson this government getting away with lying cronyism ect. Well the press in this country have a lot to answer for and there is not proper holding government to account journalism which is one of our biggest problems, a corrupt government and press. Then there is the reason that Johnson government can get away with doing what they want, which brings into question what role does the Head of State have if not to stop this government doing what it likes it can't.

Then there was a question what is the leader of the opposition doing he is not opposing, lots of people say, Johnson and government enough he agrees with him. So it all ties up, Johnson the lies and scandal chumocracy, and the reasons he is allowed to get away with it.

I would not want Borus as in sil. Definite. For me thinking whom in either party, would I want? Haven't come up with anyone yet. Name the person and there's something in the cupboard.

Also he spent afternoons at her flat ( getting his “technology lessons”) when he was supposed to be at his desk working, and getting his staff to cover up. If that’s not misconduct in a public office I don’t know what is.

James Obsens letter of resignation showed a man of principle and integrity, a quality sadly lacking by those in government office whom we should respect, now that's a joke. Respect is not sone thing that anyone seems to value, the good ones leave.

Agree Sparkling principle and integrity is sadly lacking in government and also in the opposition with Starmer

James Obsens general election candidate quits Labour. open letter to Starmer, lots of people are disappointed in his leadership of the Labour Party

Open letter

skwawkbox.org/2021/03/30/general-election-candidate-quits-labour-and-issues-open-letter/

James Obsens made not one iota of difference to those in need in society because he failed to be elected despite his excitement early that failure. It depends what you want from politicians if you want them to make a difference to those you purport to care for or not. Many dont care about that, they are so self indulgent that they think some concept of mistaken purity is more important. They tend to be the ones who need a labour government least of course.

at that failure that should say.

It's not about purity It's about wanting the party to represent the people that it was what it was set up to do.. We don't know where Starmer is heading, looks like very much like neoliberalism, in banning 100s of members, why did he do that?

When I was young and naive as part of our History A Level we were advised to read biographies of the main politicians of the time. This I did and what an eye opener that was! A lot had very dubious and salacious private lives. I suppose the thing was that they were private at the time. Now our modern politicians have it splashed all over the media and press. So maybe we can ignore the sex bit but we can’t ignore the rest.

Bojo was cleared by the IPCO when he was mayor of any criminal activities. What we have now is Nolan but I’m not sure how much this takes in the question of misappropriating funds which is the most concerning. It seems a bit of a grey area. Did they not have proper audits and if not why not?

I like to look at the wider picture, and I think the American political philosopher Michael Sandel, gives a useful take on our modern politics. I think he illustrates the sort of climate that has led to the situation where the elite who are in power have such a sense of entitlement, that they do as they please without concern or sense of moral outrage or even accountability. Where a sense of “the common good” has been lost.

He has written on The Tyranny of Merit and gives a short TED talk on YouTube, which is worth a listen if you are interested.

As an aside I read that Symonds is being investigated for corruption in relation to her wildlife charity, including her claim that her salary of £160k is insufficient.

Wasn’t she also thrown out of a previous job for wrong doings of some kind?

They all seem to be tarred with the same corrupt brush don’t they?

Yes she was, but for the life of me I can’t remember what that was about. You read so much about corruption in the Tory party, it is difficult to keep up with it all.

Whitewavemark2

They all seem to be tarred with the same corrupt brush don’t they?

Yes she was, but for the life of me I can’t remember what that was about. You read so much about corruption in the Tory party, it is difficult to keep up with it all.

The first reference I found.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7230155/Boris-Johnsons-girlfriend-Carrie-Symonds-quit-job-Conservative-Party-expenses-claims.html

It's the Daily Mail, so I'm sure it's true.

Well I checked to make sure this wasn't a "Chat" thread where apparently we can make all sorts of allegations about people without any basis at all. But its not, its Politics, so here goes....

There is a Charity Commission investigation into the Aspinall Foundation regarding its governance and financial management. Symonds works for the charity but the investigation is not into her, and it dates from a time before she was employed by them.

Can't find anything about her being sacked for wrongdoing, ever, but happy to be proved wrong if someone has evidence (sorry, facts again....) She was asked to leave her post as Director of Communications for the Tory party because she wasn't very good at it. Salary: £80k. Boris tried to speak on her behalf and "Tory sources" started saying Carrie had claimed expenses she wasn't entitled to.