Just when Johnson thought it was all over….

oh hell. I've got tablet trouble, too.

'to suss out'

Whitewavemark2 We could encourage the doorman to change the lock.

There's no working door handle, the guard just has to decide not to open it...

(….and the letterbox is a fake, and the doorbell doesn't work, and the '0' is in fact 'O' put on wonkily because the ministry of works ran out of '0's. In fact the whole thing could stand as a metaphor for the current government)

Chris Bryant
@RhonddaBryant
Christopher Geidt is one of the most honourable men I have ever met. In the end he was a decent man working for an indecent prime minister. He thought he could discreetly bring about incremental change but he was repeatedly lied to by No 10. In honour Johnson should resign.

I buy that more than Geidt being nice but dim - I think he deliberately resigned without telling the government he was going to do so in advance - thereby putting them on the back foot. That’s a powerful statement about what he’s found I suspect.

We need to see his resignation letter.

What is the point of an ethics minister? - they have no power, and the likes of BJ simply ignore them.

The trouble is with Johnson having an Ethics Adviser is that no one has ever educated him to the fact that "Ethics" is not just the county that's next to London.?

Casdon

I buy that more than Geidt being nice but dim - I think he deliberately resigned without telling the government he was going to do so in advance - thereby putting them on the back foot. That’s a powerful statement about what he’s found I suspect.

Tim nice but dim was a jokey reference really.

But I don't see the government on the back foot. Indifference is their key attitude and Jabba isn't going anywhere unless the army storms No. 10.

Luckygirl3

What is the point of an ethics minister? - they have no power, and the likes of BJ simply ignore them.

Shouldn’t there be one though, the post is very important but should have different accountability so that the PM is not the ultimate authority - I wondered about the Leader of the House of Lords, but that post is also appointed by the PM!

Luckygirl3

What is the point of an ethics minister? - they have no power, and the likes of BJ simply ignore them.

Geidt was not the Ethics Minister, he was the Ethics Adviser.

Different thing altogether, I don't believe we have a Minister for Ethics.

Casdon

Luckygirl3

What is the point of an ethics minister? - they have no power, and the likes of BJ simply ignore them.

Shouldn’t there be one though, the post is very important but should have different accountability so that the PM is not the ultimate authority - I wondered about the Leader of the House of Lords, but that post is also appointed by the PM!

Perhaps we could call that elected person whom we expect to hold the government to account, oh, I don't know... Head of State?

I beg your pardon.

What is the point of an ethics advisor? - they have no power and the likes of BJ just ignore them.

The only power they have is to publicly resign; but even then BJ just lets it wash by him.

What is the point of an ethics advisor?

To advise on ethics surely? I don't know if this is a post that has always been associated with a PM but I'd like to think somebody ethical was advising them on whether what they were doing was ethical or not.

I hope his resignation letter is published or leaked

volver

Casdon

Luckygirl3

What is the point of an ethics minister? - they have no power, and the likes of BJ simply ignore them.

Shouldn’t there be one though, the post is very important but should have different accountability so that the PM is not the ultimate authority - I wondered about the Leader of the House of Lords, but that post is also appointed by the PM!

Perhaps we could call that elected person whom we expect to hold the government to account, oh, I don't know... Head of State?

The irony is that if there was such a post, Johnson would be the current incumbent, I have no doubt.

I doubt it.

Because he's Prime Minister.

So we want somebody elected to hold the PM to account, but we don't want anybody to elect them because the electorate will get it wrong.

Trying to work that one out in my head....

Next thing he will be doing a Putin , changing the rules and voting himself in for life.

The changing of the rules has already started.

volver

I doubt it.

Because he's Prime Minister.

So we want somebody elected to hold the PM to account, but we don't want anybody to elect them because the electorate will get it wrong.

Trying to work that one out in my head....

What I meant was, he would never have aimed for PM if there was an option to be president instead. He’s always thought he’s chocolate.

He’s always thought he’s chocolate.

? That's true.

Or as we say up here, "He thinks he's Erchie!"

According to the BBC, Geidt's resignation letter is to be published, but I suspect it will reveal little. The moronic Raab suggested it could be linked to "a commercially sensitive matter in the national interest, which he was asked to look at

I prefer Chris Bryant's theory that this strange national interest issue" as "chaff" to confuse matters.

I think that is an attempt to deflect from reality he told BBC News.

The BBC has just read it out. I imagine it will be on line soon. They are also reading (now) Johnson's reply

The BBC journalist commented that the tone of Johnson's reply.

HousePlantQueen

According to the BBC, Geidt's resignation letter is to be published, but I suspect it will reveal little. The moronic Raab suggested it could be linked to "a commercially sensitive matter in the national interest, which he was asked to look at

I prefer Chris Bryant's theory that this strange national interest issue" as "chaff" to confuse matters.

I think that is an attempt to deflect from reality he told BBC News.

I do wish that all these 'honourable' people who resign would come clean and tell the country the unbridled truth in plain terms. They are public servants, paid from the public purse and they shouldn't feel any necessity to protect a corrupt PM or his government.

I very much admired Jesse Norman's letter to the PM which set out in precise detail just what he thought was wrong.

Geidt looks to be too much of an 'establishment man' to exercise such frankness. But we shall see...

The government announced it would publish the letters minutes before minister Michael Ellis was called to the Commons to face an urgent question on the subject.

Labour shadow minister Fleur Anderson said the prime minister had "driven both of his own hand-picked ethics advisers to resign in despair" and added that, without reform, the position was an "unworkable".

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61822998

You can read it here:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/16/lord-geidt-letter-resignation-boris-johnson-ethics-adviser