UK General Discussion:The Rt. Hon Alex Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Populist Hero

[Pericles]

Turns out the arrested MP's victim is male and oh, who'd have thunk it, the MP has voting consistently against gay rights. Tories are honestly the massive deviants and hypocrites they think the rest of society are, aren't they?

Has the name of the MP been confirmed?

[Blair]

On reflection this has been peak Met police hasn’t it?

Still doesn’t get into their top 5 acts of misconduct in the last 20 years.

[CumbrianLefty]

Turns out the arrested MP's victim is male and oh, who'd have thunk it, the MP has voting consistently against gay rights. Tories are honestly the massive deviants and hypocrites they think the rest of society are, aren't they?

Has the name of the MP been confirmed?

Still not officially, no. But it is pretty clear who they are now.

[brucejoel99]

Is it, like, illegal to publicly suggest this MP's name before the police confirm it to the public or something? Because both yesterday & now today, I've still not seen their name go so far as to be explicitly said by any legitimate publication or even by any commenters on the matter, be they those in this thread or in any of the relevant Reddit threads either. I've literally only seen a name suggested by 1 publication, & I don't even wanna risk posting the URL 'til I know that it's legal for me to.

[Silent Hunter]

Is it, like, illegal to publicly suggest this MP's name before the police confirm it to the public or something? Because both yesterday & now today, I've still not seen their name go so far as to be explicitly said by any legitimate publication or even by any commenters on the matter, be they those in this thread or in any of the relevant Reddit threads either. I've literally only seen a name suggested by 1 publication, & I don't even wanna risk posting the URL 'til I know that it's legal for me to.

It might run the risk of identifying the victim, which is definitely illegal.

[EastAnglianLefty]

And if it incorrectly identified the accused then it would be libellous.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Is it, like, illegal to publicly suggest this MP's name before the police confirm it to the public or something?

It isn't illegal, but it is now regarded as bad practice to name people arrested of crimes before they're charged with them.* There are several other issues: firstly, the possibility of naming a victim (noted already) and this is especially serious if the victim is a minor or was at the time of the offence (the latter, regrettably, is relevant in this case), secondly, the possibility of prejudicing a trial and so committing contempt of court (which isn't so much a matter of naming, but the context of the naming: a name would not be an issue, but a name and an implication of guilt could be), and, thirdly, the possibility of naming the wrong person as the arrested party, and thus committing libel. The latter is somewhat unlikely in this case, but it's something people and media organisations have become more careful about.

Where it gets a little messy and unfortunate is that the MP in question is essentially not working as an MP now and his constituents are without representation in practice if not theory, but will not be formally aware of this or the reasons for it. Anyway, if the MP is charged with the offences he has been arrested with, then he will be named immediately.

_{*The critical shift came with the way the BBC messed up over a police raid (to which they had been given a tip-off) on the home of Cliff Richard in connection with Operation Yewtree: there was a certain sense in the coverage that he was clearly guilty. Richard was never charged - or, as it happens, even arrested - and won substantial damages from both the corporation and the police.}

[Blair]

There was also a Supreme Court case around Bloomberg revealing the name of someone who was being investigated, and it was ruled as a breach of privacy- I remember a lot of media people and lawyers said the ruling would lead to a very big change in how media companies report on these sort of things.

[Blair]

Is Nadine Dorries the most incompetent Secretary of State we’ve seen?

Her appearance yesterday at the DCMS committee triggered three different headlines (her claim Netflix’s finances are fine and that she shares her password, admitting C4 news coverage was why they’re getting sold off and getting the numbers wrong about support for this- she thought it was 96% in favour!)

Previous SoS like Grayling were bad but they were never this bad at rather basic parts of their Job.

[YL]

It's city status competition time!  We have 39 applicants, five of which aren't actually in the UK, and some are really really tiny.

England: Alcester, Warwickshire [1]; Blackburn; Bolsover [2]; Boston, Lincolnshire; Bournemouth; Colchester; Crawley; Crewe; Doncaster; Dorchester, Dorset; Dudley; Goole [3]; Guildford; Marazion, Cornwall [4]; Medway [5]; Middlesbrough; Milton Keynes; Newport and Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight; Northampton; Reading; Warrington; Warwick

Wales: Wrexham

Northern Ireland: Ballymena; Bangor, Co. Down; Coleraine

Scotland: Dumfries; Dunfermline; Elgin [6]; Greenock; Livingston; Oban; St. Andrews; South Ayrshire [7]

Isle of Man: Douglas; Peel

Falkland Islands: Stanley

Cayman Islands: George Town

Gibraltar: Gibraltar

[1] I wonder how many people know where this is and how to pronounce it.
[2] Do they want a reward for electing a Tory MP or something?
[3] LOL
[4] Even smaller than St Davids, presumably just trying for a bit of publicity
[5] They'd probably have a better chance if they just applied for Rochester to get it back.
[6] Used to be a city, and thinks it still is.
[7] WTF?  Did they mean to apply for Ayr?

And we have winners!

Colchester
Doncaster
Milton Keynes
Wrexham
Bangor, Co Down (Bangor in Gwynedd is already a city)
Dunfermline
Douglas (IoM)
Stanley (Falklands)

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

It's city status competition time!  We have 39 applicants, five of which aren't actually in the UK, and some are really really tiny.

England: Alcester, Warwickshire [1]; Blackburn; Bolsover [2]; Boston, Lincolnshire; Bournemouth; Colchester; Crawley; Crewe; Doncaster; Dorchester, Dorset; Dudley; Goole [3]; Guildford; Marazion, Cornwall [4]; Medway [5]; Middlesbrough; Milton Keynes; Newport and Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight; Northampton; Reading; Warrington; Warwick

Wales: Wrexham

Northern Ireland: Ballymena; Bangor, Co. Down; Coleraine

Scotland: Dumfries; Dunfermline; Elgin [6]; Greenock; Livingston; Oban; St. Andrews; South Ayrshire [7]

Isle of Man: Douglas; Peel

Falkland Islands: Stanley

Cayman Islands: George Town

Gibraltar: Gibraltar

[1] I wonder how many people know where this is and how to pronounce it.
[2] Do they want a reward for electing a Tory MP or something?
[3] LOL
[4] Even smaller than St Davids, presumably just trying for a bit of publicity
[5] They'd probably have a better chance if they just applied for Rochester to get it back.
[6] Used to be a city, and thinks it still is.
[7] WTF?  Did they mean to apply for Ayr?

And we have winners!

Colchester
Doncaster
Milton Keynes
Wrexham
Bangor, Co Down (Bangor in Gwynedd is already a city)
Dunfermline
Douglas (IoM)
Stanley (Falklands)

Wouldn't every single town in the UK become a city at some point in the future, assuming this countinues ?

[CumbrianLefty]

Well there are rather a lot of towns in the UK

Some of these medium sized places becoming cities, whilst Bournemouth/Northampton/Reading are still waiting, is bound to be noticed by some though.

[YL]

Wouldn't every single town in the UK become a city at some point in the future, assuming this countinues ?

It is already getting a bit silly TBH, especially in Northern Ireland, where city status is going to glorified Belfast suburbs, and Wales, which only had one applicant.  Aberystwyth could make a case and Brecon is both a cathedral town and old county town and though small would make a less ridiculous "city" than a couple which already have the status, but neither tried.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I have nothing against Wrexham, but I can think of a surprisingly long list of towns in Wales that have a better case for city status than it does.

[Estrella]

Does receiving city status mean any practical changes for these places or are they just the municipal equivalent of Hyacinth Bucket?

[brucejoel99]

Does receiving city status mean any practical changes for these places or are they just the municipal equivalent of Hyacinth Bucket?

City status means nothing legally: it grants no new powers, responsibilities, or licenses to build skyscrapers; it's purely honorary. Practically, there's an argument that potential investment is missed out on in towns that aren't technically cities; whether there's anything to that or it's just what these towns tell themselves to justify a symbolic application, who knows?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Does receiving city status mean any practical changes for these places or are they just the municipal equivalent of Hyacinth Bucket?

It means that the local authority gets to call itself a City Council and the councillors can be City Councillors rather than Borough or District Councillors. So for a very small group of people it matters a great deal. Otherwise, no, no difference.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

I almost *want* to see them try and turn Ed "Starmer Without The Excitement" Davey into some sort of scary bogey figure - it will be genuinely hilarious.

Wouldn't the campagin more be focused on turning "Former Trot" Starmer into such a figure for Con-Lib Dem swing voters ?

Well they are going to struggle with that too, though they seem to prefer the "he served under Jezza!" scare rather than the "Trot 40 years ago" one that literally nobody cares about even in the Tory party (after all, some of their MPs past and present were once on the left too)

There's also the Savile and grooming gangs stuff to rehash if they get really desperate, I suppose.

Well it probably won't matter to Labour voters or even Labour-Con swing voters, but i'm guessing trying to scaremonger about far-left policies that a Starmer-Davey  Alliance would implement could work. Similar to the mansion tax attack in 2015.

But the underlying point is that - compared to even "Red Ed", never mind Jezza - Starmer and Davey are simply fundamentally not very scary people. Tories risk actually looking ridiculous if they just try and run the 2015 attack lines all over again.

I don't know, there's already a scary biography of him out there painting him as a Machiavellian figure with a long-term plan to sabotage and purge the left from the party.
https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/04/28/sir-keir-starmer-the-cynical-leader

[CumbrianLefty]

That's hardly going to be a Tory/media line of attack on him though, is it.

[EastAnglianLefty]

I almost *want* to see them try and turn Ed "Starmer Without The Excitement" Davey into some sort of scary bogey figure - it will be genuinely hilarious.

Wouldn't the campagin more be focused on turning "Former Trot" Starmer into such a figure for Con-Lib Dem swing voters ?

Well they are going to struggle with that too, though they seem to prefer the "he served under Jezza!" scare rather than the "Trot 40 years ago" one that literally nobody cares about even in the Tory party (after all, some of their MPs past and present were once on the left too)

There's also the Savile and grooming gangs stuff to rehash if they get really desperate, I suppose.

Well it probably won't matter to Labour voters or even Labour-Con swing voters, but i'm guessing trying to scaremonger about far-left policies that a Starmer-Davey  Alliance would implement could work. Similar to the mansion tax attack in 2015.

But the underlying point is that - compared to even "Red Ed", never mind Jezza - Starmer and Davey are simply fundamentally not very scary people. Tories risk actually looking ridiculous if they just try and run the 2015 attack lines all over again.

I don't know, there's already a scary biography of him out there painting him as a Machiavellian figure with a long-term plan to sabotage and purge the left from the party.
https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/04/28/sir-keir-starmer-the-cynical-leader

Which mostly goes to show that Verso will publish any old crap if they know your dad.

[YL]

There's a story in today's Mirror than an unnamed "top Tory MP" was spiking colleagues' drinks with date rape drugs.

https://twitter.com/MirrorPolitics/status/1528109121878237184

[CumbrianLefty]

To be clear, this appears to be a different Tory MP to the arrested but not yet publicly named one.

[YL]

Classic squirming government minister interview:

https://twitter.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1528284321240457218

[CumbrianLefty]

Daily Mail showing this morning that it can be unhinged about stuff other than Beergate.

[Torrain]

Today so far:

• Cummings is ranting about how the Partygate photos will leak before the Gray report and finish Johnson.
• Conservative MP Laura Farris has said she believes that her roles as a PPS and member of the Standards Committee conflict, and appears to have casually resigned as a PPS on live tv. 
• Downing Street has admitted setting up the Boris-Sue Gray meeting, with a Humble Motion (from my hometown MP, the Lib Dem Wendy Chamberlain) expected to try and force release of the meeting minutes this afternoon

Weird Monday.