Pitch for leader ?

ronib

No - not excuses. Am more worried about the integrity of the British civil service than SB having just read about the evacuation of Afghanistan.
You do remember Chris Huhne, Vicky Pryce and a Labour mp also involved in speeding offences?

Are you sure you're reading the same book that I did, ronib?

Dunt doesn't cast doubts on the integrity of the British civil service, he highlights to failings of the government in having no plans for the evacuation, even though we knew it would be happening at some time, and the way that civil servants were left to struggle with complete lack of direction... I seem to recall that a key Secretary of State was sunning himself on a beach somewhere and had no intention of rushing back to take charge...

And I really don't see what Huhne and Price have to do with this current 'affair'. Nor whatever Labour MP you are talking about. Whataboutery is so utterly pointless.

No - not excuses. Am more worried about the integrity of the British civil service than SB having just read about the evacuation of Afghanistan.
You do remember Chris Huhne, Vicky Pryce and a Labour mp also involved in speeding offences?

And yet you are happy to make excuses for Braverman?

MayBee70 no of course it was not about breaking the law. You have had a bit of a knee jerk reaction to my comment?
More about having to lie to a wife about where her husband was spending the day. Not for me to break up a family with three small children…. Actually the responsibility of my ex boss to explain to his wife!
I didn’t last long in the high powered world of publishing and chose to be a stay at home mother….

ronib

Well when I worked as a PA to a director, I covered for a lot worse than asking about a speed awareness course! Say no more….

So you willingly helped someone to break the law? Are you proud of that? Is that what makes a supporter of this government? Well, everyone breaks the law so that’s ok then. Was your boss responsible for the implementation of the rules that he/she wanted to break?

I did an online one a few weeks ago. First speeding offence in 50 years driving. 34 in a 30. My family thought it was hilarious as they tell me I drive too slowly!!

I believe they are doing away with the classroom based ones - I could not get anything in my county for months and you only have a certain time in which to do your course. I complained and was told my other option was to take the points and fine.

When my husband did a classroom based one the woman next to him said she was doing it for her husband as he had so many points already. A woman in our village recently got one whilst driving her Dad’s car as he was very ill. By the time the letter came through he had passed away so she told them he was driving so she didn’t have to do the test or take the points.very wrong.

Well when I worked as a PA to a director, I covered for a lot worse than asking about a speed awareness course! Say no more….

GrannyGravy13

I think the online course was brought in during Covid and has so far remained.

That's my impression too.

ronib

Growstuff how very little detail we have, wouldn’t you agree?

Indeed! But what is there to dispute?

It would appear that Braverman was caught speeding and, like many other people, was offered the choice of paying the fine or doing the course.

The claim is that she asked civil servants to investigate whether she could do the course one-to-one. I have no idea whether she found the timing of the course inconvenient or whether she wanted to remain anonymous.

If it's true she asked civil servants to investigate, surely she was asking them to do something which wasn't their job. The option of a one-to-one course isn't available to anybody else, so the question remains why she thought she was worthy of special treatment.

The only issue is whether the claim is true.

Maybe it's not world-shattering, but given Sunak's pledge, it's not a good look.

ronib

Growstuff how very little detail we have, wouldn’t you agree?

So we just forget it then? Or do we find out what really happened? Imo if there was a security risk it would have been the civil service pointing it out to Braverman not Braverman not Braverman asking for them to change how the matter was dealt with.

MayBee70 perhaps read Ian Dunt on How Westminster works…. It’s more complicated than you might think.

I think the online course was brought in during Covid and has so far remained.

Galaxy

Not that I plan to do it again but that's useful info that they are online now GS. Mine was face to face but years ago now.
I imagine Sunak will take his usual approach which seems to be that things happening in government are nothing to do with him, it's quite bizarre to watch.

My partner did one a few months ago. From memory, he had the option of going to a centre or doing it online. I don't think it was just a Covid restriction, but I'll double check.

Growstuff how very little detail we have, wouldn’t you agree?

Not that I plan to do it again but that's useful info that they are online now GS. Mine was face to face but years ago now.
I imagine Sunak will take his usual approach which seems to be that things happening in government are nothing to do with him, it's quite bizarre to watch.

MaizieD

No problem with anyone getting a speeding fine, it happens. Using one's position to evade the consequences is wrong.
Don't try to make excuses for her, ronib. Even just thinking about how to wriggle out of it is wrong.

Considering how much money she's made on dodgy expenses claims it wouldn't have hurt her to just pay the fine and take the points if she wanted to avoid the embarrassment of attending a public speed awareness course.

Taking a speed awareness course costs the same as the fine. The only difference is that you don't get three points on your licence.

ronib

Agree CvD66 . Also no one has mentioned the obvious security risk of a very high profile Conservative minister being placed in a public setting presumably without any scrutiny of the other participants?

I think we deserve better comments from the media and opposition parties and isn’t it about time that the really important ‘stuff’ started being aired?

What security risk?

Speed awareness courses can be done online. Nobody knows where you live. If she'd been honest about being caught speeding, there wouldn't even be a blackmail risk. It might even have earned her some "kudos" for being just like everybody else.

So you think that the person responsible for executing the law of the land should be able to ignore it? What is the really important stuff by the way? The pollution of our seas and waterways? The decimation of our industries? Inflation? Lack of housing? Oh silly me, the important thing is all these people coming here in boats.

Agree CvD66 . Also no one has mentioned the obvious security risk of a very high profile Conservative minister being placed in a public setting presumably without any scrutiny of the other participants?

I think we deserve better comments from the media and opposition parties and isn’t it about time that the really important ‘stuff’ started being aired?

What is fascinating about this non-story, is that it featured as item no 2 in the 9am news on Radio 2; Chris Mason asked Sunak about it at G7 to rightly be asked if he had any summit questions and so on. Although I find the woman despicable , I find it fascinating that the media led by Daily Mail today as desperately keen for this story to run. Not exactly a weak new weekend but look where the media wants us to focus.

Am I making excuses for an extremely busy politician? I don’t think we should continue to be sucked in to ‘false narratives’. There’s a lot of poetry in the news these days - we don’t know the precise details but that hasn’t stopped Yvette Cooper from venting.
If I had been acting as a PA, I wouldn’t have minded finding out about the possibility of individual one to one speed awareness courses. I couldn’t have influenced whether they were available but it would not have been an onerous task to find out. IMO

I don't think there's much doubt about her burgeoning ambition, but I don't believe that her aspirations are matched by her abilities, and by her growing reputation as a loose cannon. Moreover, if the latest "revelation" proves to be true, she may soon find herself returning to the back benches, not only having broken the Ministerial code, but also having broken the law by attempting to pervert the course of justice. Did she really, when she was Attorney General, attempt to enlist Civil Servants in "wiping the slate" for a speeding fine and points on her driving licence? If proven, that is surely curtains closed on any political ambitions she may have had. Although goodness knows we have had many sad examples of other sloping-shouldered, non load-bearing, teflon coated politicians getting away with similar, or worse misdemeanours.

No problem with anyone getting a speeding fine, it happens. Using one's position to evade the consequences is wrong.
Don't try to make excuses for her, ronib. Even just thinking about how to wriggle out of it is wrong.

Considering how much money she's made on dodgy expenses claims it wouldn't have hurt her to just pay the fine and take the points if she wanted to avoid the embarrassment of attending a public speed awareness course.

Well SB is in good company for a speeding fine - wasn’t the Archbishop of Canterbury also speeding at 25 miles per hour rather than 20? Admittedly we don’t know if he asked if he could take the speed awareness course as an individual and not in a public situation. In any event, it still made the headlines.

In the circumstances, SB elected to take three speeding points. There could be quite a lot of poetic interpretation here on the part of the civil servant/s who was asked if it was possible to have any provision made . Spin and more spin.

Johnson appointed Braverman as Attorney General because she would do so in a less thorough way than any other person would. The moral bar was been set so low during his leadership that they now all think they can get away with anything. She was appointed as Home Secretary by Sunak after she’d had to resign for misconduct. She was too toxic even for Truss!