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Sunday 5 July 2020

Nadine Dorries - Junior Pants On Fire

Some MPs are happy to merely be MPs; others aspire to achieve ministerial rank. And some of those who get there want the world to know that in doing so, they are that bit more important, more special. One who is not at all backward in coming forwards to tell of her newly elevated status is Mid Bedfordshire’s representative (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries. She is not only a minister, she is a proper minister.
Moreover, she is a Minister of State. So when the Murdoch Times referred to her as “the junior minister”, she was incandescent. “I’m a Minister of State. I can promise you that absolutely no male Minister of State ever is described as a ‘the junior minister’ by male journalists. Before my timeline is swamped with the usual trolls, I’m stepping away from Twitter for the W/E”. She then put out another Tweet.

Is there any substance in this claim? Regrettably not, although it is not a unique occurrence for Ms Dorries to blame “trolls” for calling her out on her occasionally tenuous relationship with factual accuracy. Junior ministers, generally speaking, are those beneath cabinet rank, and both male and female journalists refer to them as such.
As in, Oh I dunno, an article from iNews written by Paul Gallagher, talking about Ken Clarke. “Ken Clarke: ‘Nobody in the NHS had any idea what they were spending money on before I became Health Secretary’ … As a junior minister, Mr Clarke had given virtual autonomy to run the NHS by his old boss, Norman Fowler, who was in charge of the sprawling Department of Health and Social Security for six years”. There is more.

Or a profile of Jeremy Hunt (the former Culture Secretary) which discusses his time as Secretary of State for Health, from the BBC, which includes this passage: “The mere fact he has survived so long in one of the most demanding posts in government means speculation about his future is a given. Ahead of the last election, reports surfaced that Ben Gummer, who has served as a junior minister under Mr Hunt, had been earmarked as the next health secretary. But Mr Gummer lost his seat” Nick Triggle was the author.
In the Times, with which Ms Dorries has her current beef, we find a female journalist, Jennifer Bray, describing a member of the then Irish Government: “A junior minister has been reprimanded after he said he had ‘no ideological objection’ to Fine Gael entering a coalition with Sinn Féin … Jim Daly, the minister for older people, said he had no issue with Sinn Féin being part of government, despite it being contrary to his party’s position”.

Two female journalists at the Guardian, Rowena Mason and Kate Proctor, discussing the fallout from Dominic Cummings’ drive to Durham, told readersAnother Tory MP said they expected more junior ministers to quit over Cummings’ lockdown breaches”, after describing the resignations of some, er, male junior ministers.
One might have expected that, after last week’s farce, when Ms Dorries berated the Liverpool Echo over what she claimed was “fake news”, only to have the journalist concerned remind her “We've quoted directly from your answer in Parliament”, she might think twice before jumping down the press’ collective throats.

But, as so often, that thought would have been badly misplaced. Another self own.
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12 comments:

The Toffee (597) said...

I love my home city of Liverpool for being perhaps THE most socialist city in Britain.

But f**k me, it's produced some of THE most twattish tory toerags over the years. Usually women, too. currie, mcvile, dorries and cilla black immediately spring to mind.

The Toffee (597) said...

Oh, and currie was another shit JUNIOR health minister, too.

Thank Christ she got no further than that.

The Toffee (597) said...

Another thing currie, dorries and mcvile (and the deceased 'cilla') have in common is their media whoredom and their collective self-delusion that they deserve to be on Tv.

Talentless gobshites, one and all.

Jonathan said...

Akin to Ghislaine Maxwell, Nadine has that constant craving for attention from the media.

Nadine has serious issues with her parents who either couldn't meet her emotional needs (spoilt brat or working all hours God sends).

Nadine needs therapy, ironic she is the Minister for Mental Health and Patient Safety.

Let's give Nadine the facts, her official title is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Mental Health,Suicide Prevention & Patient Safety..
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care
So in plain English a junoor minister alongside Helen Whately, Edward Argar,Jo Churchill and Lord Bethell of Romford ..
So is Nadine denying the official website of her government?

Anonymous said...

Fellow Scouse here. Is astounding how many Tory horrors we've inflicted on the world.

Humbly apologise to the UK on behalf of the rest of us.

Though have a story about politics and its relevance to the modern era when we regularly see party activist plants on Question Time and the like.

Many years ago I used to listen to the Roger Phillips call-in show on Radio Merseyside and like clockwork there was always this one guy who'd come on defending Mrs Thatcher. He had a really 'unique' whiny voice (won't say the name here) and he'd be phoning up every week irritating the shit out of me and endlessly defending the record of the Witch.

So one night am watching Question Time and a 'member of the public' asks a question. Instantly recognised the whiny voice as the same guy who always called into the radio. Saw him several times more on Question time, always asking questions as a 'member of the public' rather than the Conservative activist he actually was. Checked details and was indeed the fella.

Never trusted Question Time since.

Lol. Just Googled the dude's name and found an article from 2006 where Nadine Dories mentions him as someone '...who is possibly, unknowingly, one of the reasons I am a Conservative and who I have known since I was in nappies. '

Blimey. Sorry again from Scouseland.

Anonymous said...

Re: Mr Toffee. Don't forget Tarby!

Also while not born a scouser Patrick Minford spend his time as a Liv Uni professor pushing Thatcherite nonsense. He's still doing it, only now its Brexit & he's working at Cardiff business school. He was also one of the main supporters of the poll tax, which considering the effect it had on Liverpool tells you all you need to know.


The Toffee (597) said...

Anonymous @ 6 JULY 2020 AT 00:44

Is the whopper you're thinking of from the philips phone-in 'Danny from Stoneycroft'? Shares his surname with a former world snooker champion

One odious get with a godawful, querulous drawl that'd give Ned Flanders the urge to torture harmless fluffy woodland creatures.

I know it is. It cant be anyone else. The last time I heard him on there a few months back he'd been to spain and gave some homeless bloke his coat, cos danny's a great fella.

...Does fuck all for the poor here, except berate them for their plight.

One horridable, horridable man. I'm in no doubt he was an only child and remains unmarried. I doubt he's ever had a companion of any sort, really, the sexless freak.

The Toffee (597) said...

As for tarby I was gonna mention him in the OP but he's beneath contempt.

But almost as beneath contempt as maurice cole AKA kenneth everett. One extremist thatcherite bastard that got what he deserved.

On a side note,noticed how all the 'professional' scousers all piss off from the city and harp on about how great it is once they don't live there anymore?

I think there's only Ken Dodd (thatcher's favourite tax dodger) and Gerry Marsden ever stayed here.

I remember cilla black doing fuck-all to save her primary school from being merged with another despite being asked to meetings by ex-schoolmates and local residents; but at that time happily received something like £30k for opening liscard shopping centre, on a rare (handsomely-paid) venture back to Merseyside.

Johnspartacusanonymous said...

And of course Cardiff hosts the benighted knight Sir Mansell Aylward of DWP infamy.

Johnspartacusanonymous said...

Tarbys daughter is OK though.

Anonymous said...

Minister, shminister. Junior, shmunior.

She's a far right tory gobshite.

It doesn't matter where she's from.

Anonymous said...

Hey Toffee,

Hahaha, yep, that's the guy. His voice really is unmistakable.

Everett, Cilla - does seem like the whole light entertainment industry worshipped Thatcher in the 80s. Which was ironic because viewers got bored with them and many had no viable career by the 90s. But that was apparently all the fault of 'leftie comics who aren't funny' rather than said entertainers being shit.