Alastair Campbell had a general rule that if a Minister was still the centre of a media feeding frenzy for more than a week then inevitably they would go. So it has been for Liam Fox. I was not surprised. At first I thought he would get through but the constant drip feed of new angles on the story convinced me a few days ago that he would be gone by the week end.
The interesting political question is whether he will now emerge as the leader of the Conservative right wing in Parliament. He is able, determined and ambitious with a clear political philosophy – watch this space!
If say any worker (in this case a ‘top’ one) is 99% fit-for-purpose, then surely The Nation does not need to barr them from the pupose and job they are well-suited for and (possibly) well-versed and up-to-date in ?
Why is it not monitoring done on any key-worker (definition: any worker being paid more than one human-living) especially high key-position incumbents ?
They are sworn to serve only The Nation so
should have no qualms about living as well as working sustainworthily, ‘transparently’.
If this, and any such, high-up is so “able (smarter than the rest of us), determined (more focused i.e. blinkered than the rest of us), and ambitious (more competitively lethal than the rest of us)”
then it is most probable that neither s/he nor any other in that same ‘class’ of pay, power, and privilege would ever want to be monitored – “close ranks”:
but we (The People) surely do need her/him (and every other in such high-up ‘classes’) to be 24/7/52/5 molnitored whilst holding so many of our lives, and so much of the fruits of our labours, at otherwise vulnerable and unprotected risk.
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The lesser scenario I paint would be where we The Perople can be sure that the majority of such ‘classes’ are honest-to-God and all-round and in-depth fit-for-purpose, such 24/7/52/5 monitoring may be relaxed:
but still I would say that each member of such ‘class’ be trained and regularly tested in at least competency of communication, honest-argumentation, and both self-healthing and self-reporting.
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A clear political philosophy?
Huh!?
Make a comparison with another doctor of medicine, such as they are today,Lord Owen, and ask yourself what kind of many Mr Fox is. Not half the man, not half the measure, not half the ability.
I don’t agree with Fox’s philosophy, but he was an articulate and quite astute flag-bearer for it. If he so wishes, he could from the back benches both be and lead an effective spear in the side of the Tory party for Thatcherite values. However, I think Mr Cameron is sufficiently set on his course to resist the naivety of the purist Thatcherite stance and continue a more subtle route to ultimately the same kinds of ends. But he is finished as an office-holder, owing to his serious sheer lack of judgement in letting Werrity encroach anywhere near his space.
Astonishing, all of you. And how forgiving when it comes to one of your own.
My goodness. Here is this man who, it is claimed, was selling his favours through some complicated covert deal with a compadre pretending he was an adviser to our government department of ‘defence.’ And yet the call here is simply that he return to the back benches, and, maybe later, some time in the future, he could be recalled to the top box.
What an utter disgrace. Have you all gone mad? He is a moral disease and here you are offering this creep an out? To be foisted, once again, on outfoxed constituents, as if he is a decent citizen fit to represent them as an MP?
Where do you people live? These two scoundrels should be investigated in full and if found to be treasonous face charges. When are you ever going accept accountability for actions in real terms.
You play in a kindergarten of your own making and that is why the UK is going down the pan. And at speed.
However, those who are defending this pair are the ‘right wing’ of the party, so we are advised. Well that tells you where that lot are living doesn’t it?
What a nasty bunch they must be. They cannot even calculate the overwhelming violation of what is going on here. That then, makes it clear they too would be at it given half a chance.
How disgusting to even think to keep him on. He should go and so should the rest of the corrupt politicians who vote on issues they have an interest in. Off with you all.
Back to sleaze and the Paris Ritz arms dealing already then?!
He was doomed by Monday, when Cameron gave him full support. As anyone who follows football knows, that’s the code for a club chairman telling the manager that he ought to clear his desk because he’ll be fired within a week or two.
Maude
I am not aware of any financial interest so far. There might be but there is no evidence for it yet. The motivation seems to have been to outwit the current government’s foriegn and defence policy. Liam Fox wants a strong Atlantic alliance and the UK out of the EU, What he seems to have done is create an alternative policy base more in tune with his thinking. If there is financial wrong doing as well then that becomes even more serious.
financial interest so far. There might be but there is no evidence for it yet.
I really don’t enjoy Maude’s strident approach but it may be the woman’s way of weighing things up. On this occasion I do.If you consider who is the chairman of the most influential private international security firm in the UK, you only have to look to the Sec for defence of Mrs Thatcher’s govt.
Dr Fox, as an observing younger politician is very well aware, even whilst taking up the post of Sec for defence of the future money earning possibilities for the expertise he acquires, possibly even with the same international security business.
The Sri lanka link is sinister indeed in this context in view of their very long and tiresome civil war with both sides spending vast sums of money on arms. from which arms enterprises did those arms come.
Presumably Mr Werritty is interested in the arms business too.
It does indeed beggar belief that a man who pretends to be dedicated to healing and care of sick people should spend a single moment
on weaponry of any sort.
The surgical bringing out of knives is bad enough, but what does Dr Fox want? Blood, or blood and a fortune from the arms trade.
The noble lors Soley’s comment above…”Yet”
may be taken in two different ways and NLS knows that, being the astute political observor that he is.
Yet may refer to yet in twenty years time or it may mean yet, now! It depends how you read his remark.
Dan may have some finer details on former secretaries of state, names of whom elude me, and the conflicts in which the secretary’s war mongering business is currently actively involved.
Maude has included milesjsd and his submission: that most importantly every holder of national power or secret-knowledge should be monitored 24/7/52/5, for the duration of their possession of that power and information.
Maude, you are thus but one more of a “privilegocracy” now caught “closing ranks”, against thoroughgoing security at all levels which is the overshadowing and underlurking Blameworthy-Issue and string-of-bombs-waiting-to-go-off, way away into the future.
You are not in favour of securing such “stable-doors” ?
You just want those trustees (and there are actually millions of them in Britain’s governance places alone) who escape through insecure stable-doors to be caught and severely punished ? way away into the future ?
At least keep one blade of your battleaxe sheathed (please).
wants a strong Atlantic alliance and the UK out of the EU,
That’s a contradiction for a start.
Not clever at all; run of the mill.
Back benches; big pay; War business chairmanship before long.
@GH:
‘wants a strong Atlantic alliance and the UK out of the EU’
I know they peddle the alternative premise, but, that is what they would have you believe, Gareth.
If the UK was playing with a full deck, it would take over the promotion of Europe, whilst getting shot of the US. They’re finished. Already rotting internally, the head having long decomposed.
financial interest so far. There might be but there is no evidence for it yet.
I really don’t enjoy Maude’s strident approach but it may be the woman’s way of weighing things up. On this occasion I do.If you consider who is the chairman of the most influential private international security firm in the UK, you only have to look to the Sec for defence of Mrs Thatcher’s govt.
Dr Fox, as an observing younger politician is very well aware, even whilst taking up the post of Sec for defence of the future money earning possibilities for the expertise he acquires, possibly even with the same international security business.
The Sri lanka link is sinister indeed in this context in view of their very long and tiresome civil war with both sides spending vast sums of money on arms. from which arms enterprises did those arms come.
Presumably Mr Werritty is interested in the arms business too.
It does indeed beggar belief that a man who pretends to be dedicated to healing and care of sick people should spend a single moment
on weaponry of any sort.
The surgical bringing out of knives is bad enough, but what does Dr Fox want? Blood, or blood and a fortune from the arms trade.
The noble lors Soley’s comment above…”Yet”
may be taken in two different ways and NLS knows that, being the astute political observor that he is.
Yet may refer to yet in twenty years time or it may mean yet, now! It depends how you read his remark.
Dan may have some finer details on former secretaries of state, names of whom elude me, and the conflicts in which the secretary’s war mongering business is currently actively involved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_State_for_Defence#Secretaries_of_State_for_Defence_.281964.E2.80.93_.29
The list is revealing of those who are on the make today from the war business after being secretary of state for defence.It is a career path, for those who want it.
I have my own opinions of these men, and of those who have good principles of peace and harmony in the world, even after having had such a thankless task.
Self employment in the arms business is one option.
two scoundrels should be investigated in full and if found to be treasonous face charges
Unfortunately it is the way of government ministers, and of defence secretaries in general, that they are tempted by the lure of big wages once they have left government, a Chancellor in banking, a “defence” secretary
in the arms trade, DTI sec in big business of some sort.
It remains to be seen what kind of businesses
the former Labour govt ministers are taking up,but they are rather less likely to go for huge rewards by selling their govt office experience; hard to explain why in a few words.
I was very impressed by Mr Hoon’s sudden arrival from the USA to be defence secretary
in the Blair govt, and equally by the rt Hon Sheila Hewitt’s taking of office in that same govt even though with little experience of the UK ways of doing things.
I trust they both have top jobs now they have left office,particularly Mr Hoon,possibly backed up by a seat in the second chamber.
The career path these days seems to include returning to Rome to become a cardinal.
If you continue to enjoy a place to gain the attention of the press/media you can certainly also promote an allied business cause at the same time.
Peers in the arms business, former secretaries of state, doubtless find it
very useful to impress and entertain in the house of Lords, and then go make s statement about the importance of national security, in the chamber after lunch.
Where would they entertain otherwise? In the Paris Ritz?
Hamilton and Aitken got a little too mixed up with it than they should have done,Eh,(bribery and corruption) and got found out, but will Werritty?
Scarcely treason Maude, scarcely treason!
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Please will mod delete duplicated posts; not
Gareth Howell (I’m sure) but the system.Perhaps it is beginning to age again, and need updating.
@Twm:
If the entire story is to be ours, and that is always dubious, I would say you can make a wager it’s as close to treason as you can get.
I’d be easily convinced the £150 thousand they exhumed is a small slush fund, for every day expenses. The rest is buried, beside the money laundering set.
And as far as Labourites being cleaner, because? Just inhale the Blair creature.
It is the fact of the more humble beginnings of the Labour people which make it rather less likely that they will have their sights on hyper-jobs AFTER their terms of office even when they are taking on the cabinet post in the first place.
Even Hoon’s ambitions , and he only hung his washing very conveniently on the Labour party line in 1997, even he, after the policy making of the Labour govt would be less likely to get super duper pay for the trouble.
You don’t often meet a tory pacifist do you now?
Maude is manic about “Treason”. Rifkind’s private army bases its enterprise on doing security work that the UK govt does not want to do itself. That can scarcely be counted as treason. that word is out of synch with political reality. Sorry.
Maude,
garhywelatgmail.com
Twitter does not work for me.