A few weeks ago, I was out drinking (which I don’t do very often these days) on a Wednesday night and Michael Fallon resigned.
Tonight I was out drinking on a Wednesday night and Damien Green resigned. Robert Peston, who predicted he’d be absolutely fine, must be crying into his beer now.
All I can say is that it’s a sacrifice I would be prepared to make on a regular basis, especially for the Hanging Bat’s excellent honeyed ale with a schooner of rather excellent Porter on the side, all in the company of a very bad influence indeed.
It must be a blow for Theresa May to lose such a close ally. She’d managed to keep the timing to as close to Take out the Trash Day as possible. The news cycle packs up and goes home for Christmas in a day or two and we’ll soon all be too full of mulled wine and mince pies to care. The janitor has come along and taken a hammer to the shoogly peg her jacket was hanging on (that’s Scottish for she’s looking a bit less fragile in her position than she was a couple of weeks ago) so if this had to happen, now is as good a time as any.
In terms of Lib Dem reaction, Alistair Carmichael was first out of the blocks, saying:
Christmas can’t come early enough for Theresa May as her cabinet continues to crumble.
Midwinter is going to be especially bleak for a government barely holding itself together.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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15 Comments
There are many good reasons why Ministers should resign.
Not sure that having the police put stuff into the public domain about you that they shouldn’t but which could be embarrassing (but not illegal) and then saying that you weren’t aware, presumably to avoid said embarrassment, when in fact you were … is one of them.
Yes, but it doesn’t take too much to tell the truth when asked about something like that. He seems to have been got by the fact that he wasn’t honest about what he knew.
crewegwyn 20th Dec ’17 – 10:52pm………..There are many good reasons why Ministers should resign………….
Yes, and one of them is the, ignored, complaint from a Tory activist about his inappropriate behavior…THAT is what opened this particular ‘can of worms’..Green denied that as well as the porn on computer accusation…
Ministers are expected to be honest and those who rallied round with tales about ‘how it could be someone else with access to his account’, etc. should either feel badly let down or should hang their heads in shame…
Like crewegwyn, I feel uncomfortable about the back story to this case.
Contrast this case with how David Davis’ has misled MPs and the public over non-existent sector by sector studies on the impact of Brexit. Which do we think is the more serious?
Green has stated in his resignation letter
From the outset I have been clear that I did not download or view pornography on my parliamentary computers. I accept that I should have been clear in my press statements that police lawyers talked to my lawyers in 2008 about the pornography on the computers, and that the police raised it with me in a subsequent phone call in 2013.
It appears he is resigning because he denied the police had told him they had found porn on his laptop.
I apologise that my statements were misleading on this point. The unfounded and deeply hurtful allegations that were being levelled at me were distressing both to me and my family and it is right that these are being investigated by the Metropolitan police’s professional standards department.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/damian-green-quits-latest-resignation-letter-in-full-theresa-may-a8121291.html
I would never doubt the words of a Right Honorable Member of Parliament, but why do the words of the sadly departed Mandy Rice Davies keep reverberating through my head “He would, wouldn’t he?” perhaps MRDA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRDA_(slang)
So far as the Green case is concerned, I do think that the behaviour of the police is the most important issue. Effectively they were off on a fishing expedition and used what they found to destabilise and elected representative. For the issue of the porn and what Green said, I need to what the allegations mean. Does reference to downloaded stuff, would this be a matter of browsing history, or would this have to refer to a decision to save a file on the hard drive? I simply do not know. Does clicking on LDV count as downloading? I think some images do get temporarily stored.
To evaluate Green’s statement, I would need to understand more about these things, and nothing of what I have heard has much significance in the public arena, whereas Davis has been misleading, incompetent and damaging on a scale that is likely to cause harm for millions, for many, many years to come.
Talk about ‘strawmen’…It seems an argument is that Green should not have gone because Davis hasn’t gone…
Try that logic when defending a case, “Milud, my client admits he burgled a house but you should let him off because Mr. xxxx burgled 10 houses”
@Frankie
“I would never doubt the words of a Right Honorable Member of Parliament, but why do the words of the sadly departed Mandy Rice Davies keep reverberating through my head “He would, wouldn’t he?” perhaps MRDA. ”
Since you mention MRDA – why ever not doubt the words of a Right Honorable Member of Parliament?? Because lying in Parliament was why the late John Profumo resigned his ministerial office, his parliamentary seat and from the Privy Council.
Right Honorable?? Either of them?? I think not!!
These people just seem to have an overblown sense of entitlement.
expats:
I am not sure what your problem is, nor where you are coming from. You will find nothing in what I have written to say that Green should not have gone. In fact I point out some aspects about what ‘downloading’ refers to. Yes, I do compare Davis with Green, because I think that Davis has been more seriously misleading and more damaging to the public.
There is another aspect to the Green case, which is indirectly linked to how he was misleading in parliament and that is the action of the police. I do wonder how expats feels about this. I think it would provide an insight into the nature of expats’ political standpoint.
Caron,
Please drink more it may bring an end this Tory shower>
If need be I will send a few bottles of Black Pearl from the Wily Fox brewery of Wigan, an excellent black IPA to wash away the Tories
“Please drink more it may bring an end this Tory shower”,
Of course it’s meant lightheartedly, Mr Wilkinson, but I’m afraid it’s more likely to bring an early admission to the Liver Ward at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary instead of an end to this Tory shower.
Former Tory leader William Hague wrote in the Daily Telegraph recently that there should now be a cabinet reshuffle, not including him. Theresa May has not yet replaced Damian Green, but she does have on the backbenches someone with more experience of government, who is definite that he does not want to stand for the leadership, again. She could avoid a reshuffle if she posts Ken Clarke into the vacancy. “He was elected MP for Rushcliffe at the 1970 General Election, gaining the seat from Labour.” https://www.conservatives.com/OurTeam/Members_of_Parliament/Clarke_Kenneth
@Richard Underhill
Apart from Ken Clarke being unlikely to accept the post of First Secretary of State as it would mean he had to vote with the Government on Brexit, I think that such a move by May would push the Brexiteers into sending their letters to the 1922 Committee Chairman and forcing a leadership contest.
Mr Green is trying to distract attention from the much more serious suggestion of sexual harassment that he faces. It is right that he go but don’t bet on him being brought in front of a court any time soon.
And yes, the police should also be brought o book for their misconduct, but don’t think that will happen in the foreseeable.
Martin 21st Dec ’17 – 9:46am
expats………….There is another aspect to the Green case, which is indirectly linked to how he was misleading in parliament and that is the action of the police. I do wonder how expats feels about this. I think it would provide an insight into the nature of expats’ political standpoint……………
If you read my 20th Dec ’17 – 11:42pm post you will find that I mention the most serious aspect of this affair (Maltby)…Green had strenuously denied both inappropriate behaviour towards Maltby and accessing pornography on his work computer. He now admits that his lawyer discussed the pornography with police in 2008 and 2013, and he has also apologised to Maltby for any distress caused………….
Regarding the police they will, quite rightly, face investigation over their actions…As to my political standpoint; it’s no one’s business but mine, although reading my post history should give a clue…