... and the sleaze goes on ...

Whitewavemark2

Apparently it was Cummings wat done it.

Leaking to press that is.

Who cares? Not convinced he has left no 10 anyway.

Apparently it wasn’t, wwm2
Not according to Cummings...

Cummings wrote in his blog
The Cabinet Secretary told the PM that the leak was neither me nor the then Director of Communications and that ‘all the evidence definitely leads to Henry Newman and others in that office, I’m just trying to get the communications data to prove it.
The PM was very upset about this. He said to me afterwards, ‘If Newman is confirmed as the leaker then I will have to fire him, and this will cause me very serious problems with Carrie as they’re best friends … [pause] perhaps we could get the Cabinet Secretary to stop the leak inquiry?

Interesting that Johnson personally called the papers to blame Cummings though.

All ridiculous.

It all needs a clean out

..

I’ve posted this on the Johnson/Cummings thread, but really it is as well on here.

Sir Edward Lister, who recently resigned from a government post after only 2 months, told The Sunday Times, that Cummings lives in fear of imprisonment because of fraud committed during the Brexit referendum.

I think many of us are aware of this and have been banging on about it for years.

It is time this was thoroughly investigated, the perpetrators dealt with (regardless of who they are) and the whole issue out in the open with justice done. Otherwise we will never move forward as a country.

Germany has about half our number of deaths per million population and is a comparable country..

Not sure that using Germany as an example of low COVID deaths is that good, given they have a population the size of Turkey and double their deaths!

I think all countries could’ve done better on one or more levels (except maybe anywhere that had no deaths!) when the investigations begin in earnest.

Don’t Germany use different criteria for what’s on the death certificate anyway? Many countries don’t use our 28 day Covid
Diagnosis, but simply have say ‘heart failure’ on the certificate.
I wouldn’t trust anything that China says about anything, and India and Brazil etc don’t have reliable fact gathering going on.

lemongrove Here’s a summary looking at total excess death rates across the world compared with previous years which makes it clearer. According to this Germany has done much better than the UK in terms of total excess deaths in the past year - I don’t think there’s any ambiguity in this, although if anybody knows more please say.
www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker

That graph made interesting reading Caslon but for some reason it shows Istanbul figures rather than Turkey! Any ideas anyone?

Apologies. Casdon (autobluddywrongagain ?)

More than £2bn in contracts politically connected to Tories may have come through priority channel, suggests new report
opendemocracy.net

“Systematic and partisan bias”

Peter Kyle MP
@peterkyle
·
24m
We’ve just discovered #Greensill had a Downing Street pass, IT equipment and desk...but no contract or job description.

The culture in Downing Street is a petri dish for corruption.

Whitewavemark2was that when David Cameron was PM?
as Mr.Kyle’s tweet does not make it clear.

Simon Case - the Cabinet Secretary was given a hefty drubbing yesterday when he appeared in front of the select committee yesterday and consistently refused to answer their questions.

Such lack of transparency does not aid Johnson’s cause nor give confidence that the leaks are not based on good evidence.

GrannyGravy13

*Whitewavemark2*was that when David Cameron was PM?
as Mr.Kyle’s tweet does not make it clear.

I'm pretty sure that was when Cameron was PM.

That is what I thought MaizieD

Kylie didn’t say.

This month brought us the alarming sight of Boris Johnson hijacking a taxpayer-funded Downing Street press conference – intended to provide the public with a vital COVID-19 update – to attack one of his political opponents.

And over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a worrying new trend of Government videos and social media content being misappropriated to advance Conservative Party political messaging. And, we believe, the costs of both are coming out of the public purse, not the party coffers.

Several recent Government videos carry the distinct look and feel of a party political broadcast, brandishing the Tory electoral slogan “Build Back Better”, but prominently using the No 10 crest. And when you compare this No 10 branded image alongside the landing page of the Conservative Party website, it’s virtually impossible to distinguish which is Government policy and which is party political campaigning.


Make no mistake, this is Trumpian stuff. Especially when you consider we are now just a few weeks away from the biggest set of local elections on this side of a general election.

It is a legal requirement for Government to have a published policy for how it maintains a clear dividing line between informative communications, which can be properly funded by taxpayers, and electoral material, which is governed by strict campaign finance rules. Otherwise, those in power could simply divert the resources of the state to hold onto power.

Worryingly, our lawyers have been unable to locate any such policy about ensuring Government communications are not used deliberately, or inadvertently, for party political campaigning. And so far Government has chosen to ignore our requests to provide us with a copy.

This issue goes to the very heart of our democracy. We cannot allow this misuse of state resources to go unchallenged. We have issued the first step in formal legal proceedings. Our Pre-Action Protocol letter can be found here.

The case will be crowdfunded. If you’re in a position to donate to the legal challenge, you can do so here: www.crowdjustice.com/case/feathering-party-nest/

That post was copied from The Good Law Project

Sleaze sounds quite of 'cute' - why use this term for what is, in real terms, multiple counts of pure FRAUD.

EXCLUSIVE: Prince Andrew has gone into business with a former Coutts banker who quit in disgrace over allegations of sexual harassment. They used a rare company structure to avoid filing public accounts.
@GeorgeGreenwood
& me on on
@thetimes
frontpage

Grany

EXCLUSIVE: Prince Andrew has gone into business with a former Coutts banker who quit in disgrace over allegations of sexual harassment. They used a rare company structure to avoid filing public accounts.
@GeorgeGreenwood
& me on on
@thetimes
frontpage

Yes saw that but this really ought to go onto a RF thread.

There is a suggestion that Windsor set up the company before he was given the boot which would have been wrong.

Whitewavemark2

Grany

EXCLUSIVE: Prince Andrew has gone into business with a former Coutts banker who quit in disgrace over allegations of sexual harassment. They used a rare company structure to avoid filing public accounts.
@GeorgeGreenwood
& me on on
@thetimes
frontpage

Yes saw that but this really ought to go onto a RF thread.

There is a suggestion that Windsor set up the company before he was given the boot which would have been wrong.

Companies House will have a record of when the Limited Company was initially set up as the records are open to the public as will be the accounts (which have to be submitted yearly by law)

Re the flat improvements

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

Grany

EXCLUSIVE: Prince Andrew has gone into business with a former Coutts banker who quit in disgrace over allegations of sexual harassment. They used a rare company structure to avoid filing public accounts.
@GeorgeGreenwood
& me on on
@thetimes
frontpage

Yes saw that but this really ought to go onto a RF thread.

There is a suggestion that Windsor set up the company before he was given the boot which would have been wrong.

Companies House will have a record of when the Limited Company was initially set up as the records are open to the public as will be the accounts (which have to be submitted yearly by law)

Not sure that is correct, they have used a weird company structure which avoids filing accounts etc.