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Thursday 2 November 2017

Fallon Quits - Who’s Next?

There were never going to be any resignations last weekend, as the Murdoch Sun claimed. And it was not just about a historic grope of Julia Hartley Dooda’s knee, despite, once more, the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker suggesting otherwise. The now former (and disgraced) Defence Secretary Michael Fallon knew that his behaviour had “fallen short”, to use his happy phrase, on several occasions over the years.
No more of that inappropriate behaviour

Fallon, as ITV political editor Robert Peston reminded us, “was aware that his behaviour with women over many years would be regarded as inappropriate if disclosed”. He “found the stress of waiting for someone to make a complaint debilitating”. He knew he’d behaved badly, and knew that in today’s climate, he was unlikely to get away with it. Moreover, Peston did not have to look far to find potential complainants.

The killer line in his analysis was “several women Tory MPs say he fell short of the conduct they expect of all men”. Not interns, not researchers, not other Commons staff, but his fellow MPs. No mention needed of that “attractive Russian blonde” he had to be pulled off at a party. having already allegedly indulged in acts of inappropriate touching.

Peston is not out on a limb with that analysis: the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg observedit's also been suggested to the BBC that Number 10 was approached directly by several women with concerns about Sir Michael just this afternoon”, and that “While sources close to him want to underline that they had not been told of any more allegations to come, or anything more serious, they were clearly aware that there could be more to come”.
He knew, and his colleagues knew, that he had been behaving badly on a regular enough basis to know that more could be on the way. And worse for Theresa May is that she knows he is not the only one in her party with a less than squeaky clean past. Peston once more: “she dare not do more tomorrow than replace him … because she does not yet know which other of her ministers and MPs will be fatally tainted by allegations of abusive or harassing behaviour”. She cannot undertake the reshuffle she would like to happen.

All of which leads into the obvious question: who’s going to be next? One look at the now infamous spreadsheet, which for various reasons cannot be shown here (don’t ask), shows that, apart from Ms May’s deputy Damian Green, who is consulting very expensive lawyers probably to no purpose, there are many more ministers, not all of whom can claim that they are doing nothing of which their constituents would not approve.
Worse, although many Tory apologists explain some of the behaviour away by saying it has happened “with consent”, the CPS guidelines for Freedom to Consent talk of “Where the suspect was in a position of power where they could abuse their trust, especially because of their position or status”. Also, the question has to be asked - why is Fallon not leaving the Commons for good? How can he still sit as an MP?

Michael Fallon’s resignation, to paraphrase Winshton, may not be the end. It may not even be the beginning of the end. But it may be the end of the beginning.

2 comments:

Arnold said...

It's a good job that the Government isn't involved with any important European negotiations at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Oh for chrissakes......PESTON?!

That’s the same far right mainstream media meff who said this: “I have few qualms about celebrating the creativity of capitalism and capitalists. It may not be pretty but, on the whole, greed is good”. In the same paragraph – and you’ll like this – he praises James Murdoch for making a fortune for himself in the internet business (Who Runs Britain? Hodder & Stoughton paperback 2008, page 336).

Anyone who trusts Peston is a fool. The guy’s a far right shill, always has been, always will be. A typical London media spiv, nothing more.

The same goes for the BBC tory Kuensstberg. Her face is a picture of a smacked arse trying to explain away the latest tory disaster and evidence of moral corruption and hypocrisy. She’d be like a rat up a drainpipe if these allegations were made against the current Labour Party. Another London media spiv.

Watching Fallon fall on his pork sword, as it were, is only mildly amusing.

None of the mainstream media will draw attention to the bullshit “Victorian/British/Family values” the tories have peddled over the years – all while they couldn’t keep their peckers and pussies in a secure place. Seesil Parkinson/John Major/Edwina Curry/Boris Johnson anybody? And that’s just a tiny beginning. The same old sleaze from the same old profiteering scumbags. There’s nothing new about it at all.

Is it any wonder this collection of political and media poltroons, liars, lechers and hypocrites are thoroughly despised by anybody with a sense of decent common sense?