After last year’s General Election, when she stepped down as an MP and her supposedly marginal seat suddenly became safe Labour territory, Gisela Stuart, one of very few Leave backers in the Parliamentary Labour Party, joined the closed world of the Pundit Establishment, appearing on TV to give viewers the benefit of her views. She was taken on trust, despite the increasing amount of evidence showing her team cheated.
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Ms Stuart was a principal of Vote Leave, which not only broke the rules, but persistently lied about it. So it might have been thought that she would now keep a low profile, especially as investigations into Vote Leave’s activities are ongoing. But not a bit of it: last week, she was announced as the new chair of Wilton Park, “an executive agency of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office providing a global forum for strategic discussion”.
And while Ms Stuart was quick to tell the world of her new appointment, others were not so enamoured of the news. After her former Vote Leave partner in crime Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson had exclaimed “A wonderful appointment!” came the bad news.
Fionna O’Leary put her concerns directly. “You must be joking. You on the Governance Committee of Vote Leave that have been found guilty of a want of good governance by the EC AND the High Court. Wilton Park that, in Feb 2017 used SCL Elections/CA to present on its Trump psy-ops campaign? Bent as a nine-bob note”. Ouch!
Carole Cadwalladr was equally unimpressed. “Oh right. Here it is. Vote Leave conspired to break the law. @BorisJohnson fronted the campaign. He knew. @GiselaStuart chaired the campaign. She kept her mouth shut. STINKS”. It certainly does.
Meanwhile, Steve Peers had another reason not to endorse Ms Stuart’s appointment: “A terrible decision. Ms Stuart - who was involved with an organisation that broke electoral spending law, and chaired an inquiry into the rights of EU citizens then voted against the results - is wholly unfit for public office”. And it got worse.
Lib Dem MP Tom Brake mused “Strange choice, Gisela Stuart, as Chair of Wilton Park … Wilton Park 'encourages innovation in global thinking’ … Gisela Stuart didn't do much of that during the EU Referendum campaign”. This, sadly, is true.
The Tweeter known as Facts Central also brought up Cambridge Analytica, SCL and AIQ: “Just to make sure I got this right … The same Gisela Stuart who used [the] Canadian office of SCL/CA, aka AIQ at Change Britain, is now the Chair of Wilton Park, FCO training that used SCL Elections/CA?” All rather incestuous, isn’t it?
And Jon Worth, looking on from Berlin, concluded “Wilton Park is the U.K. Government’s location for *thinking* about foreign policy … Thinking is not something one associates with Gisela Stuart … Chair of the corrupt Vote Leave is more what springs to mind … What a sign to the world, eh, Britain?” A terrible advert for Britain.
But it’s clear that Gisela Stuart knows all the best people. Well, the best ones for getting her a job that she does not appear to merit, that is. Welcome to the Corrupterati.
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4 comments:
She is one of the 'characters' who fronted up a bare faced lie (£350 million) coupled with a false promise (it can all go to the NHS) on the big red bus. That such characters are still in positions of national influence is immensely worrying. This applies whether we are a member or not of our local trading bloc.
Obvious choice for a global job. Come Brexit, Frau Stuart will have fewer visa problems than us mere mortals
And isn't she New Labour...........?
You know, like Geoff "Gun For Hire/Frankly Wants To Make Money" Hoon and Jack "PR Firm £60,000 per annum" Straw.
What a coincidence.
Yes, that'll be it......a coincidence. There's no other explanation.
I live in Selly Oak, Birmingham. We had a Labour MP from 1992, the excellent Lynne Jones. So in 1997 we were 'twinned' with Hall Green and I went there to work. One visit convinced me it was the most sulphurous, unpleasant campaign I'd ever encountered in the Labour Party, largely due to one, thankfully short-lived, full-timer. I'm two hundred yards from the Edgbaston boundary. So I went there, to work for Gisela Stuart. And it was a lovely campaign, welcoming, unfailingly pleasant, positive. I was given proper work to do and thanked for doing it. And that good homour came from the top. Gisela was delightful and incredibly hard-working, a joy to work for. We were a very long way apart in the broad church of the Labour Party but it was really, really good to see her elected. I carried on working for Gisela until 2010 and every time it was the same: some of the nicest campaigns I'd ever worked in (and, alas, I go back to 1970). She went down well in Birmingham, symbolised by the fact that Brummies, who are Anglo-Saxons at heart, pronounced her name correctly from the first day, while metropolitan commentators were trying to say "jee-sella" or the like.
I don't know why Gisela supported Leave, and even more why she appeared on the same platforms as Boris Johnson and Gove. But I'd like this experience recorded, when people are calling her all kind of names.
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