Kwasi Kwarteng at the Queen’s funeral.

I saw the video today and he is clearly laughing. It's extremely odd and he should offer an explanation. He is a senior member of the government, this was an official engagement?

Daisymae

I saw the video today and he is clearly laughing. It's extremely odd and he should offer an explanation. He is a senior member of the government, this was an official engagement?

Exactly so.
I’m not a Tory voter but I’m not tribal enough to raise concerns because I don’t agree with Kwateng’s politics. As a senior member of our government, his behaviour needs explaining

Iam64

Daisymae

I saw the video today and he is clearly laughing. It's extremely odd and he should offer an explanation. He is a senior member of the government, this was an official engagement?

Exactly so.
I’m not a Tory voter but I’m not tribal enough to raise concerns because I don’t agree with Kwateng’s politics. As a senior member of our government, his behaviour needs explaining

I think the only explanation can be either he had an earpiece connected to his mobile and is laughing at something someone's said during a conversation, or he was having some kind of emotional / mental 'struggle' which caused him to behave inappropriately.

Considering the backlash Corbyn received for not singing the national anthem in St Paul's on the 75th anniversary of the BOB as a member of the Opposition, then QK should explain himself. At least Corbyn stood in respectful silence.

I'll personally give him (QK) the benefit of the doubt and assume he had a reason, but he should be held to account.

Perhaps he was laughing at the thought of the mini-Budget he was going to unleash on us and all the money he and his friends might make out of it.
☹

Listening to Nick Abbot last night/ tonight.

Nick started reading out a text from a listener about KK, he tailed off, and stopped reading it.

It went like this:
‘something something…Kwateng laughing at the…no…I can’t read that…’

So something is definitely going on.
Abbot doesn’t shy away from controversy at all.
Very odd indeed

That’s interesting FannyC. That sounds like some kind of news black out. How and why?

Maybe he was uncomfortable seeing the huge amount of money being wasted and possibly was working unlike the other lazy Conservatives who after wasting months fighting each other in internal elections have decided to skive off for a week, why? The Queen's not their close relative. I found the whole funeral and the BBC reporting distasteful when there are children and parents and pensioners in the UK wondering how they are going to pay their bills and making decisions about food or warmth.

www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/revealed-queen-private-estate-invested-offshore-paradise-papers

Maybe he was laughing at the serfs who think the money hidden by the the rich abroad and tax lost does not make any difference to their lives.

Iam64 it’s so intriguing and frustrating isn’t it!

Interesting why and how would he be ‘working’ at a state funeral?

And his actions this week don’t speak to me as being the actions of a man ‘uncomfortable’ with ‘wasted money’, or indeed a bloke with any sort of social conscience.

Have you been listening to the news at all?

Maybe the government has slapped a D notice on the episode?

Sorry, WW, what does that mean?
Whatever they have done, it’s working admirably

Saw this on Reddit earlier

Whitewavemark2

Maybe the government has slapped a D notice on the episode?

Well the government has a sort of “arrangement” with the press. The government advise the press which stories they don’t want published often because of so called national security, but I think it goes further than that tbh.

It isn’t legally binding and is a British arrangement. The press always comply as far as I can see.

Sorry wrong quote?

Well I never. I thought that I was quite knowledgeable about the press etc
Thank you WW
So, for instance, if Nick Abbot had read out the offending text, he would have been in trouble with his bosses, but not breaking any actual ‘rule’.
And LBC would be risking access to interviews with Tory politicians etc

I’m away FannyC with occasional WiFi so not heard news but caught up via newsprint
I think you’re right whitewave, it’s been slapped with some kind of injunction. I can’t work out how it isn’t in the public interest to expect an explanation of some kind

There was a daft, click baity thing in the Times Online asking ‘why was Kwarteng laughing?’
But it didn’t offer any explanation at all, just repeated that he’d been seen laughing.
Not much has been made of the clip where he put his whole hand over his face. Others have described it as ‘wiping his face’, but he wasn’t.
He looked really off his nut in that clip.

Whitewavemark2

Whitewavemark2

Maybe the government has slapped a D notice on the episode?

Well the government has a sort of “arrangement” with the press. The government advise the press which stories they don’t want published often because of so called national security, but I think it goes further than that tbh.

It isn’t legally binding and is a British arrangement. The press always comply as far as I can see.

Along the lines of when Prince Harry was in Afghanistan - there was 'an arrangement' for the British press not to query his whereabouts, as he surely would have been missed by the royal watching press.

It was an Australian outlet that let the cat out of the bag.

Ok river walk, good point. Maybe a similar thing will happen here

Whitewavemark2

Maybe the government has slapped a D notice on the episode?

I'm just imagining the uproar in the RW media had, for example, Starmer behaved in a similar fashion to Kwarteng.

I know there are some decent traditional Conservative voters out there who would want him to account for himself. I hope they are biding their time.

This is a party that cheered when they voted to block a pay rise for nurses in 2017. A party that contains members, MPs, who are on record making derogatory comments about the working class, a party that is reneging on a deal IT signed as "done", a party blaming the EU for its own incompetence, a party which appears to be gagging for a trade war with Europe, a party which has made promises it has not fulfilled (nor intended to - it has already 'excused' itself from those promises), a party which prior to the referendum made sweeping statements:

"A free-trade deal with the EU will be 'the easiest thing in human history"

"Turkey is going to join the EU and millions of people will flock to the UK"

"Brexit does not mean the UK will leave the single market"

And here we are with the £ falling, investors wary of our economic credibility, the OBR forecast banned, the very wealthy being made even more wealthy, the impoverished and squeezed middle picking up the tab for Truss' and Kwartent's largesse. The ridiculous ideology of 'trickle-down'. I could go on, but I'm depressing myself and need to get out into the garden away from this madness.

Oh, and I would just mention that there's on ominous silence about state pensions. My guess is that the party will decide it doesn't need the grey-vote as it's going to forge ahead regardless with its economic gamble, so will have decided to 're-arrange' the plans for any increase...

Have a good day everyone.

Riverwalk

Whitewavemark2

Whitewavemark2

Maybe the government has slapped a D notice on the episode?

Well the government has a sort of “arrangement” with the press. The government advise the press which stories they don’t want published often because of so called national security, but I think it goes further than that tbh.

It isn’t legally binding and is a British arrangement. The press always comply as far as I can see.

Along the lines of when Prince Harry was in Afghanistan - there was 'an arrangement' for the British press not to query his whereabouts, as he surely would have been missed by the royal watching press.

It was an Australian outlet that let the cat out of the bag.

But I don't think Kwarteng's life could be put in danger if this incident was clarified, unlike Prince Harry in Afghanistan.
That could have put the rest of Harry's group in danger too.
When his whereabouts was leaked by the press he had to return home.

FannyCornforth

Listening to Nick Abbot last night/ tonight.

Nick started reading out a text from a listener about KK, he tailed off, and stopped reading it.

It went like this:
‘something something…Kwateng laughing at the…no…I can’t read that…’

So something is definitely going on.
Abbot doesn’t shy away from controversy at all.
Very odd indeed

Thank you for this - so interesting

I first saw the video on Twitter and couldn't believe my eyes

So frustrating, I want him to be made to account for his strange behaviour

To be fair several people in government have always made their intentions clear. Johnson was quite open about wanting to make himself above the law. Kwarteng and Truss writing that book ten years ago. They haven’t sneaked things through. And yet, the electorate seem to be quite happy to support them
Don’t ask me why

And yet, the electorate seem to be quite happy to support them

I'm not sure that's true.
As mentioned previously, they are there by default, sneaked in by the back door, the leader elected by a minuscule proportion of the electorate.