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Thursday 16 July 2020

Grayling v Lewis - Who Fouled Up?

Once again, alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson has presided over a foul-up as chaotic as it was unnecessary: the attempt to secure Chairmanship of the Security and Intelligence Committee - under whose auspices the Russia Report will finally be released - for Chris Grayling failed, and instead, Tory Julian Lewis won the vote, for which transgression he has had the party whip withdrawn.
Julian Lewis, the latest fall guy

It was authoritarian, it was gratuitous, it was the most public own goal. As the BBC’s Nick Eardley said, “It's an embarrassment for No 10 who are widely thought to have favoured the former transport secretary. A spokesman said the decision was for the committee alone”. But when the committee alone made the decision, Downing Street decreed that it was the wrong decision and threw Lewis out of his own party.

The charge sheet included this gem: “[Lewis] has been told by the chief whip that it is because he worked with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage”. But, as Dominic Grieve told on Newsnight last night, “This is a non-partisan committee … it has never had a vote in its history … the idea that there is something wrong with someone like Julian Lewis getting support from [Labour and the SNP] cannot be right”.
It is clear that those in Downing Street do not understand the Intelligence and Security Committee. It is also a dead giveaway as to who is behind the authoritarian decree that Lewis, by building a consensus with those representing two other parties, was somehow guilty of a disloyalty so serious that he had to have the whip withdrawn.

Grieve also said this: “What troubles me about this episode, quite apart from its utter absurdity and now withdrawing the whip from Julian, who is indeed highly respected, is the mindset if gives of what on earth is going on in Downing Street. Why did they try and manipulate this process? They shouldn’t have done. The committee can only exist, the committee can only be respected … if it is seen to be non-partisan and independent, and on the whole, in its previous years of existence it succeeded in doing just that”.
So, the question has to be asked as to who is taking the decisions. And the conclusion has to be that it is not Johnson. As when he was Mayor of London, he has chaps to do that sort of thing for him. Whatever his Mayoralty did not get right, it was not an authoritarian show. My conclusion is that Johnson is not behind Julian Lewis’ defenestration.

One person now in Downing Street, though, certainly does know about authoritarianism, because that is how he proceeds, whether or not he knows what he is doing. He proceeded in that manner at the Department for Education when in the service of Michael “Oiky” Gove. And so it has continued: my Occam’s Razor is pointing me directly at chief Downing Street polecat Dominic Cummings as the one Wot Done It.
There can be no dissent from whatever the Polecat decrees: he must have control of every aspect of the Government machine. Hence the removal of the Civil Servant leading the inquiry into allegations of bullying against Priti Patel. Any whiff of non-conformity with his wishes, and out you go. This is an intolerant and out of control individual.

Of course, while the Tories are ahead in the polls, all will be well for Dom. But he should remember what happened to Mrs T. The Tories, like Spectre, do not tolerate failure.
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10 comments:

Arnold said...

Failing Grayling will go down in history as the only man ever to lose a rigged election.

J said...

"they don't tolerate failure"... errrm, Grayling is nothing but a serial failure. Is the any job he's been given that he's not failed at? I'm just shocked that he's not managed to lose an election in his ultra safe seat he's that used to failing.

Anonymous said...

J - they don't care if ministers or MPs fail at their actual job. The only impact there is public money or the public itself. What they won't tolerate is failure to do what is needed to maintain power for the Tory elite. As soon as Cummings loses his magic touch, they'll gut him and leave the body in a gibbet.

Ferdy Fox said...


Grayling and Intelligence in the same sentence................surely not!

Anonymous said...

@ J - I feel Grayling is retained for a certain comedic value. Like the clown who always receives the pie in the face. And had he not fallen acrimoniously yesterday he’d undoubted have done so when his betters feltthe time was right.

Anonymous said...

If it *was* 'Polecat Dom' then that makes Johnson look even worse than if he did it himself out of pettiness and spite.

The Toffee (597) said...

''Is the (sic) any job he's been given that he's not failed at?''


Yes. Holding his breath. It's a fucking shame it was only temporary because the nation would've loved the useless, gormless twunt to have succeeded at it.

Anonymous said...

Not the first person to lose a rigged election, that was Hillary Clinton.

Jonathan said...

Polecat behaves like Grand Moff Tarkin from Star Wars, in fact there is a little similarity between Polecat and Tarkin both balding, nasty, cruel, vindictive and Tarkin ended up as spac dust when the Death Star was destroyed.

Everything the Polecat touches turns rotten, maybe Tory backbenchers are beginning to see this except Tory Spartan Mark Francois who recently threatened the Head of the Armed Forces ..the General laughed knowing Polecat is a cowardly weasal.

Anonymous said...

Few sights are funnier than "No Ferries" Grayling being fucked off by his own gobshites.

Except that video of him being fucked off at Lime Street station when he tried to get his fat tory arse into Liverpool - and got it kicked out as soon he showed up. As did Bozo.

Oh how we larfed.