Goodbye Michael Fallon, Hello Gavin Williamson

[T_i_B]

Last edited Thu Nov 2, 2017, 04:24 PM - Edit history (1)

Michael Fallon has become the first high profile casualty of a leaked spreadsheet of sexual sleaze among Conservative MP's.

He has since been replaced by Gavin Williamson. All I know about him is that he was chief whip and seems to be regarded as overly ambitious by many anonymous Tory MP's.

Any thoughts on the current brouhaha? Be it the leaked naughty list or Gavin Williamson.

[T_i_B]

1. Fallon's 'painful' decision to resign

This thread needed a link or two.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41840007

"What might have been acceptable 15, 10 years ago is clearly not acceptable now," Sir Michael Fallon told me tonight as he quit the government.

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 did not feel that he could necessarily account for every event, every encounter in a long ministerial career without being able to guarantee that no more would emerge.

But it'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 within hours he had therefore taken the decision to go.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41841887

Theresa May's chief whip, first elected to Parliament in 2010, wasn't among the bookmakers' favourites for the Ministry of Defence vacancy.

The South Staffordshire MP has no military background and had little opportunity to build up a public profile because his role in the whips office meant he did not speak in Parliament.

After entering Parliament, Mr Williamson was given a role in the Northern Ireland Office in 2011, and then became David Cameron's backbench aide. He was appointed a CBE in the ex-PM's controversial resignation honours list, telling the Stourbridge News he was "extremely honoured and humbled" at the award And he didn't fall out of favour as Theresa May took over in July 2016 - "literally walking out with one prime minister and in with the next" in the words of friend and fellow Tory MP James Wharton.

After a disappointing general election for the Conservatives, he played a key role in brokering the £1bn deal with the DUP to prop up their minority government.

[T_i_B]

2. Charlie Elphicke suspended by the Tories, and Kevin Hopkins suspended by Labour

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41866970

MP Charlie Elphicke has been suspended by the Conservatives after "serious allegations" that have been referred to the police, the party has said.

Mr Elphicke, a former party whip who has been the MP for Dover since 2010, has denied any wrongdoing.

In a post on Twitter, the married 46-year-old wrote: "The party tipped off the press before telling me of my suspension.

"I am not aware of what the alleged claims are and deny any wrongdoing."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41866351

Suspended Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins has said he "absolutely and categorically" denies claims of sexual harassment.

Ms Etemadzadeh alleges that Mr Hopkins said during a conversation in Parliament: "Let's not talk about politics, do you have a boyfriend?"

"He also said that if nobody was in his office he would've taken me there," she added. "I was absolutely shocked and I wasn't really expecting that." After refusing to respond to his phone calls, she claimed he sent her a message saying "that I'm an attractive, lovely young woman and a man would be lucky to have me as a lover and if he was young... but he's not".

Meanwhile, Labour MP Clive Lewis has denied groping a woman at the party's annual conference this year.

[LeftishBrit]

3. The list seems to be a mixture of many things

From criminal (if proven) sexual assault to what are legal consensual affairs. For example, little as I like either Amber Rudd or Kwasi Kwarteng, I cannot see why their relationship should even feature: I don't think either is even cheating on another partner, let alone doing anything illegal. Can't help suspecting that some good old Tory-base racism may be contributing to the idea that this could be a scandal. At the other end of the scale, the accusations against Elphicke seem to be quite serious.

One additional point: the scandal is not only in the sexual sleaze itself, but in the claim that this was used by whips for blackmail purposes. Blackmailing people to vote against their principles or constituents (of course, the party system does that anyway to a degree) seems very ugly, and if it's not illegal, it should be. After all, bribery is rightly illegal, and this sort of blackmail is perhaps even worse because it's likely to be harder to resist. I would not be at ALL surprised if Elphicke specifically has been blackmailed by someone, as he started as a Remainer, and ended up making hysterical demands of the Labour Party to promise to 'respect the referendum result'.

Regrettably, I am quite sure that too many men in all parties have the attitude that young women, who work for them. are their personal property.