Will the corruption ever end? Gavin Williamson resigns

I would say he is definitely corrupt given the dodgy deals he has done regarding hiding PMs and MPs behaviour.

He has a knighthood out of it for gods sake!

He knows too much and thinks he is invincible.

All this money for getting sacked needs to be stopped, doesn’t it? I can understand a severance payment when cabinet ministers (or possibly also MPs) are voted out in a change of government. The point of paying MPs was that if we didn’t leadership would be skewed to the rich* as working people couldn’t afford to do it otherwise. I suppose that would also apply to losing their jobs, if they’d given one up to carry out their ministerial duties properly. If they’ve kept a side hustle going, or been sacked, however, I think it’s different and it’s getting very close to corruption when the system rewards bad behaviour.

* I know - I was talking generally, not about this dreadful bunch of upper class twits.

I used to (like to) think that corruption was rare in the UK - but no more. Surely, severance pay should be similar to redundancy, reasonable and linked to length of service? Still, working in education, it always seemed that the useless ones were soon 'rewarded' with redundancy - and the rest of us battled on

I’ve just read that Williamson says he won’t take the severance pay.
Pity Truss didn’t refuse her hand out
What a shower

Love this, taken from an article about him in the Telegraph this morning:

“The former fireplace salesman served as defence secretary under Theresa May and education secretary under Boris Johnson during Covid, somehow managing to keep British schools closed longer than any comparable country while making a fiasco of exams. He was sacked from both roles. Astoundingly, Boris awarded him a knighthood in March.

When I saw that Rishi Sunak had appointed him Minister without Portfolio, I thought:

1. Not trusted to be given a proper job but too feared not to be given a job. He knows too much.

2. Payback time for twisting arms during the Tory leadership campaign.

3. This will be a disaster that “professionalism and integrity” Sunak lives to regret.

Sure enough, it was just weeks before leaked text messages appeared to show Williamson threatening the then chief whip Wendy Morton for not getting him an invitation to the Queen’s funeral. He whinged at being excluded from Westminster Abbey and accused Ms Morton of “rigging the ticket allocation” to punish people like him who had not supported Liz Truss. He seemed to warn the chief whip not to “push him about” saying darkly, “there is a price for everything”.

Ms Morton sent the messages to the Conservative Party after making a formal complaint about Williamson’s behaviour. She has now referred him to Parliament’s independent complaints and grievance scheme.

“I of course regret getting frustrated about the way colleagues and I felt we were being treated,” apologised Williamson, unapologetically – though this time, it wasnt enough to save his bacon and last night he resigned.

Until yesterday, he enjoyed the Prime Minister’s “full confidence”. but claims that Williamson had told a senior civil servant to “slit your throat” and “jump out of a window” made his position untenable. In classic Alan Partridge style, he did not deny using those words but “disputed they amounted to bullying”. Slit your throat being a term of endearment in the fireplace community. Can you imagine such behaviour in any other workplace?”

Sums up the dung beetle nicely I think.

'Dung beetle' .

When people say he was a fireplace salesman - was he going to people's houses helping customers to choose between living flame and electric bars, or is it like calling Terence Conran a furniture salesman?

Not that it matters, but if it's the former it makes his rise to prominence seem even more questionable.

Excellent article, thanks urmston. My inability to link stopped me posting John Crace from this morning’s Guardian. It’s another excellent summary of Williamson’s talents and his appeal to Tory leaders 😏

M0nica

Being a bully is not corruption. As far as I know Gavin Williamson has not been charged with using his influence to get opportunites for others close to him, nor accepting money for favours.

I am not defending him, he should never have been given the job in the first place and I am glad to see him go, but he is not corrupt and has not been charged with corruption.

I agree with you M0nica on the narrow point of the definition of Williamson's behavour, but the people who supported him allegedly to prevent their behaviour from becoming public are guilty of corruption.

Petera

M0nica

Being a bully is not corruption. As far as I know Gavin Williamson has not been charged with using his influence to get opportunites for others close to him, nor accepting money for favours.

I am not defending him, he should never have been given the job in the first place and I am glad to see him go, but he is not corrupt and has not been charged with corruption.

I agree with you M0nica on the narrow point of the definition of Williamson's behavour, but the people who supported him allegedly to prevent their behaviour from becoming public are guilty of corruption.

I don’t think we know if he’s actually behaved in a corrupt way or not. I wonder what it was that persuaded Sunak to give him a cabinet role, knowing he’d been sacked twice before, Williamson must hold some sway surely - what is it though?

Iam64

Excellent article, thanks urmston. My inability to link stopped me posting John Crace from this morning’s Guardian. It’s another excellent summary of Williamson’s talents and his appeal to Tory leaders 😏

Here you are, Iam

Actually Iam64 it’s good to illustrate that the Telegraph also has unbiased columnists. Some people call it the ‘Torygraph’ and dismiss it out of hand (without reading it!).

I liked it when someone likened Williamson to the hapless Private Frank Pike (Don’t tell ‘em Pike!) from the Home Guard in the tv series ‘Dad’s Army’.
🤣

What was he knighted for?

NanKate

What was he knighted for?

The ability to keep him mouth shut when in possession of damaging facts about the behaviour of senior colleagues.

Well, a particular senior colleague who happened to have knighthoods in his gift, anyway.

Whitewavemark2

“Gavin Williamson will pick up £16,876 in severance pay for lasting exactly TWO weeks in government (plus £2,589 in gross pay).

As it's the third time he's been sacked/ forced to quit govt, presumably he's done quite nicely out of taxpayer.”

I can hear the ghost of Yasser Hughes saying

'You're incompetent, right? I can be incompetent. I can, honest. Go on, Gi'z a job? Gi'z a job, go on.'

Yosser 😡

Bloody autocorrect, spoiling my jokes

what was he knighted for burying the bodies, metaphorically speaking 😉

The suggestion I’ve read is that Johnson appreciated Williamson keeping silent about Johnson’s private life

To add - that links imo to Williamson ‘allegedly’ telling a whip who was handing money to an MP with financial problems to make sure the MP knew that meant Williamson ‘now owns him’

The current government has a bullying/corruption problem. We need rid

Well done Anne Milton for your honest Channel 4 News interview about Williamson. A great MP ditched by Johnson for her principled stand over his Brexit mess up.

Urmstongran

Actually Iam64 it’s good to illustrate that the Telegraph also has unbiased columnists. Some people call it the ‘Torygraph’ and dismiss it out of hand (without reading it!).

I liked it when someone likened Williamson to the hapless Private Frank Pike (Don’t tell ‘em Pike!) from the Home Guard in the tv series ‘Dad’s Army’.
🤣

Sorry, Ug, but I really couldn't afford to pay for pages and pages of right wing dross in the hopes of reading the occasional 'unbiased' columnist.

I can assure you MaizieD there are many thought provoking and even critical opinions of the government put forward regularly in the Telegraph.

As for the cost - we each prioritise our needs and likes with what disposable income we have. For instance I don’t spend money on a garden, crafting or baking. To each their own.
😁

Urmstongran

I can assure you MaizieD there are many thought provoking and even critical opinions of the government put forward regularly in the Telegraph.

As for the cost - we each prioritise our needs and likes with what disposable income we have. For instance I don’t spend money on a garden, crafting or baking. To each their own.
😁

On that basis Urmstongran, do you subscribe to the Guardian and the Independent too so you get a fully rounded political experience?

Casdon

Urmstongran

I can assure you MaizieD there are many thought provoking and even critical opinions of the government put forward regularly in the Telegraph.

As for the cost - we each prioritise our needs and likes with what disposable income we have. For instance I don’t spend money on a garden, crafting or baking. To each their own.
😁

On that basis Urmstongran, do you subscribe to the Guardian and the Independent too so you get a fully rounded political experience?

You don't have to subscribe to the Guardian to read it (though they do ask you for a fiver from time to time..). It becomes really expensive to shell out for long term subscriptions to newspapers just so as to be able to read the odd article. I know that some offer very cheap limited period 'trials' but that doesn't help over the course of a year. Even the 'free' article limited offers are a pain if you're using more than one device and aren't well enough organised to put the logins and passwords on all devices. It's all very clunky...

Added to that we have respected commentators wanting you to 'subscribe' to their substack or patreon blogs. Getting any sort of 'political experience' can end up being pretty expensive. And time consuming if you feel you have to read everything you've subscribed to in order to get your moneys worth...

It would be good if newspapers and blog sites just had a one off charge for accessing an article (say £1 or £1.50) with no logins/passwords attached...

Love "Dung Beetle".

the Daily Mail hath spoken:

"A weedy bloke who thinks he's hard': Tory MPs turn on Sir Gavin Williamson as he is forced to quit Cabinet over slew of bullying claims including allegations he told officials to 'slit their throat'

‘Slit their throat’ is just so despicable, and frankly, really disturbing.

If someone said that to me, I would be quite scared, and really question their mental state.

It comes from a very dark and cruel place.

Like many in the current and previous cabinets, they know that they are out of their depth.
They spiral out of control and get vicious.
Patel was of a similar persuasion