Is this another Tory scandal brewing? (Part 1)

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Justice minister stripped of powers

Ken Clarke to take charge after Djanogly failed to declare family interest in claims management companies

The justice minister, Jonathan Djanogly, has been stripped of his responsibility to regulate firms that "ambulance chase" the public following a Guardian investigation that revealed how he and his family could profit from controversial changes to legal aid he was piloting in parliament.

Djanogly, the heir to a £300m family business, had failed to declare that his teenage children were minority shareholders in his brother-in-law's businesses – two firms that advertise claims and are part of an industry that Djanogly regulated in government.

Do you get the feeling that after each Revelation about members of this government you just have to shout NEXT

blueturando. Thank you for yet another attempt to divert a thread from its topic, typical troll behaviour. The Labour manifesto from 2010 has nothing whatsoever to do with Tory scandals, as well you know. Don't be surprised if further efforts by you to spoil this forum are deleted without explanation, you've had enough warnings.
 
Maybe you're trying to distract attention from the real scandal at the moment - Brooks, Coulson and Cameron - which, with any luck, might produce enough revelations to bring about the end of this corrupt Tory government which you support.
 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BX4wLzTCEAAHEJe.jpg

That noise you can hear is the closing of ranks.

Ivan....If Brookes & Coulson are found guilty ( which in my opionion they are....allegedly ) then Cameron has some serious questions to answer and should be brought up to answer these in front of the commons select committee and the public.

Its simple Ivan....corruption is corruption, whether its Tories, Labour or whoever

Just stop pretending your current Labour party is anywhere on the left, because you're kidding yourself...Fortunately some of the other left wingers/socialists on cutting edge are not so easily fooled

I agree entirely. All you have to do is look at the parliamentary expenses scandal to realise that corruption spreads around fairly evenly.
 
This article in the Daily Telegraph shows that Cameron made inflated claims as did one Tony Blair. I wonder what happened to them?

ghost whistler wrote:-
Where is the real party of socialist values and left truly liberal leanings?

 
It was Bismarck who first used the expression “Politik ist die Lehre vom Möglichen“ (“politics is the art of the possible”) way back in 1867. And he was right. Any UK party which promises us a socialist utopia will be slaughtered at the polls by a combination of Rupert Murdoch, ‘The Daily Mail’, Tory lies and scaremongering, and with the entrenched prejudice of millions of people who have been swallowing right-wing propaganda all their lives.
 
I have a friend on Twitter whose views are very similar to mine. She is a member of the TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) and sees that as the way forward. In the Eastleigh by-election in February, the TUSC came 13th with 62 votes; even the ‘Monster Raving Loony’ scored 136, while the ‘Beer, Baccy and Crumpet’ candidate managed 235. I’m sure the Tories are delighted to see left-wingers frittering away their votes on fringe candidates, since it increases their chances of slithering back into power.
 
I have a lot of time for the Green Party. Both its leader, Natalie Bennett, and its one MP, Caroline Lucas, are socialists, but I see that Electoral Calculus gives Lucas only a one in four chance of retaining her Brighton seat in 2015:-
http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/conlist_a_b.html#BrightonPavilion
 
After May 2015 there will either be Tories or Labour in government. There is no other possibility. Voting for the Lib Dems is pointless, since they’ve just become a rubber stamp for the Tories. Some ‘Little Englanders’ and ‘Daily Mail’ readers with brains smaller than a walnut may fall for the dubious charms of Farage, but I’ll be amazed if his party of far-right oddballs wins even a single seat. So, in the last resort, the only realistic option for voters is to choose which one of the big two parties is the least worst.
 
If the nightmare continues and the Tories win in 2015, things won’t stay as they are now, they’ll get even worse. If there is anything left to sell off the Tories will see to it, and their friends and party donors will continue to be well rewarded. Grant Shapps has told us that the Tories would make it even easier to sack people, probably with those ‘no reason’ dismissals that Tory donor Adam Beecroft favours. Some Tories have even been considering charging people to see their GP, an idea also supported by the Lib Dem Shirley Williams, or putting a cap on the number of times you can see your GP. Foxhunting would be back, and inheritance tax cuts for the very rich would be a racing certainty.
 
On the other hand, Labour has already promised to implement these twenty policies if it wins in 2015:-
• Repeal the Health and Social Care Act (otherwise known as the NHS Privatisation Act)
• Reverse the bedroom tax
• Scrap Workfare and replace it with a ‘compulsory’ jobs guarantee
• Scrap Ofgem and freeze energy prices to provide time to bring in proper energy price regulation
• Support mining communities and clean coal technology
• Back small businesses by cutting business rates in 2015 and freezing them in 2016
• Build 200,000 homes a year by 2020
• Regulate private rents
• End the abuse of zero hours contracts and strengthen the minimum wage
• Promote a living wage for public sector workers and shame the private sector into following that lead
• Expand free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds to 25 hours a week for working parents
• Restore the 10p starting rate of income tax
• Restore the 50p rate of income tax for the super-rich
• Impose a mansion tax on the rich
• Implement the High Pay Commission report in its entirety
• Offer a VAT cut or a ‘temporary’ VAT holiday
• Repeat the bankers’ bonus tax
• Break up the banks and set up a National Investment Bank
• Offer a minimum 33-40% cut in tuition fees
• Limit rail fare increases to 1%
 

I get that it's easy to criticise both parties

 
Yes it is, it's easy and it's lazy. Just repeat "they're all as bad as each other" whenever more Tory sleaze or corruption is uncovered and that's supposed to negate the argument. It doesn't. And you have to go back to 1963, and a Tory minister called Profumo, to find a scandal of the magnitude of the one which is now unfolding at the Old Bailey.
 
Tory trolls such as blueturando come here, not to tell us how wonderful the Tories are doing (something which would require them to be quite inventive), but to try, insidiously, to influence left-wingers into not voting for the only party which can remove Cameron’s evil shower from office. If you and others abstain or throw your vote away on a fringe party, our trolls will have achieved their aim and their masters at Tory Central Office will no doubt be well pleased.

IVAN how spot on your post is, the trolls on here know there is not a hope in hell that the Tories will get anybody to vote for them in May 2015, and they know it. I predict a Labour win for Ed Miliband in May 2015 better than the landslide that Tony Blair got in 1997, and the Tories will have to keep their hands on their butts a long time before they are ever voted back into power in the UK, so maybe they would be better to go to the USA and join up with the TEA PARTY.:yeahthat:

Such a pity that "Cutting Edge" doesn't have the circulation enjoyed by The Sun, Mail, Times or Telegraph.

Ivan....I am more than happy to talk about the Tories at great length anytime, but continuously calling someone a troll because they have differing views from your own sounds a bit like the bullying unite leaders sending the heavies rounds to bully the wife and children of a company director....Now I see where you get it from. Fortunately I am more thick skinned and will laugh it off as usual, but you do make yourself look a bit of a silly billy.

So, my overview of the Tories are...what you see is what you get, most of the time. Some things they have done are in my opinion are good and some are bad...But at least they have ideas and policies. I am more than happy to debate in much greater detail but I don't want to accused of going off topic, so your welcome to pick a thread and I will go on that one and we can get the ball rolling

Rebekah Brooks vetoed BBC man and told Cameron he should give No10 job to Andy Coulson
 
What are we to make of all this? Is Cameron really a fit person to be running the country? (Please ensure that any replies aren’t libellous.)
 
- Brooks intervened to persuade Cameron to make Andy Coulson his spin doctor. She TOLD Cameron that the post should go to Coulson “to strengthen links between the Tories and News International”.
 
- Cameron met News International executives 26 times in 15 months.
 
- Cameron has been repeatedly reluctant to discuss his close links with Brooks, even when it came to admitting he had ridden a retired police horse loaned to her.
 
- Cameron failed to declare a meeting with Brooks two days after Coulson quit.
 
- Cameron and Brooks reportedly texted each other on their mobile phones to ensure they were not spotted together when they met at a point-to-point race meeting in Oxfordshire.
 
- Coulson stayed at Chequers two months after he was forced to quit as Downing Street’s head of communications over the phone-hacking scandal.
 
- Cameron was reportedly in regular contact with Brooks by text message right up to the week when she was forced to resign.
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/9255030/David-Cameron-failed-to-declare-meeting-with-Rebekah-Brooks-two-days-after-Andy-Coulson-quit.html
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2015573/Rebekah-Brooks-vetoed-BBC-man-told-Cameron-No10-job-Andy-Coulson.html

There is no doubt of the relationship between Cameron, Brooks and of course Coulson...which calls into question his judgement over the appointment coulson...and I am sure Cameron will have to answer some uncomfortable questions on this...and so he should. BUT, what has this got to do with the trial of Brooks and Coulson over their alleged criminal behaviour...unless you are accusing Cameron of hacking phones? Is that what youre saying Ivan?

As time passes, we're getting a clear impression of the vacillating Cameron as someone strongly influenced by whoever it was he has just spoken to.

Until he meets someone else.

blueturando wrote:-
….continuously calling someone a troll because they have differing views from your own…..

 
As I’ve told you before, this is why I call you a troll, not because I don’t like your political views:-
 
“A troll is a person who sows discord on the internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.”
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
 

unless you are accusing Cameron of hacking phones? Is that what youre saying Ivan?

 
No it isn’t, and once again you’re making false deductions.
 
Tony Blair got close to Rupert Murdoch, and as a result ‘The Sun’ switched its support to Labour in 1997. I’m not sure what was in it for Murdoch. Maybe it was keeping the UK out of the euro, though why an Australian octogenarian is so bothered about what we do is anyone’s guess, maybe he just wants to control the world. Anyway, although Blair was in favour of joining the euro, Brown wasn’t and it never happened.
 
Recognising the clout which Murdoch has with his corrupt media empire, Cameron also cosied up to him, and as a result we saw that incessant attack on Gordon Brown in the run-up to the last election, where even his handwriting and a single spelling mistake were turned into front page news. Murdoch pulled out all the stops and nearly won the election for Cameron (he was more successful with Tony Abbott in Australia recently).
 
So what was in it for Murdoch? Quite a lot it seems. Cameron was ordered by his close friend and neighbour, Rebekah Brooks, to employ Coulson, even though he was about to make Guto Harri his director of communications. (Cameron then announced that “everyone deserves a second chance”, which suggests he knew that Coulson had done something very wrong.) Murdoch wanted the rest of BSkyB and nearly had it handed to him on a plate by Jeremy Hunt, who appears to be fireproof. Hunt hid behind a tree in an attempt to avoid being seen on his way to having dinner with James Murdoch, to whom he sent over 160 emails, but he was still considered a fit person to adjudicate on BSkyB. Hunt lied to Parliament, but there’s no chance of him being sacked, I’m sure Murdoch wouldn’t allow it. Murdoch wants the BBC broken up to damage the main competition to his media empire, and even this week Grant Shapps has been making threatening noises against the corporation. That useless nincompoop and former journalist on ‘The Times’, Michael Gove, remained on Murdoch’s payroll even when he was an opposition MP.
 
Cameron is clearly in Murdoch’s pocket. As soon as Cameron was in office, Murdoch went to see him in Downing Street. He was there again in July 2010 (entering by the back door), immediately after his company launched its bid to take over BSkyB. Cameron met executives of News Corporation more times than he met representatives of all other media groups combined.
 
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/dec/10/murdoch-cameron-meetings-bskyb-bid
 
We know from the Leveson inquiry that when Cameron put ‘LOL’ in a text message to Brooks, he thought it meant "lots of love". Read what you like into that and his relationship with her. However, far from suggesting that Cameron was personally involved in hacking phones – the sort of thing that a troll would try to deduce from my words - I was merely asking the question “is he a fit person to be running the country?” I’m in no doubt that he isn’t.

As I’ve told you before, this is why I call you a troll, not because I don’t like your political views:-

“A troll is a person who sows discord on the internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.”

If that the case then you are as much of a Troll as I am, so I am in good company ( Example....Picture saying Tories are worse then Terrorists )

That whole 'Chipping Norton set' should be the first lot up against the wall when the revolution comes.

Dan Fante wrote:That whole 'Chipping Norton set' should be the first lot up against the wall when the revolution comes.

 
Dan Fante  YOU WILL NEVER COME AWAY WITH ANYTHING MORE TRUE & THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT :yeahthat:

With the topic receding gently into the mists of time, I'll grab this opportunity to say that the Huntsmen of Chipping Norton don't feel themselves mightily constrained by the current position in Law.  At the beginning of October, members went "cubbing" which is a customary process each Autumn of surrounding a fox's lair with horsemen to frighten out the young cubs. For the education of the hounds, and to control numbers of course.

It's a slight variation upon the phrase, Let the dog see the rabbit.

oftenwrong wrote:With the topic receding gently into the mists of time, I'll grab this opportunity to say that the Huntsmen of Chipping Norton don't feel themselves mightily constrained by the current position in Law.  At the beginning of October, members went "cubbing" which is a customary process each Autumn of surrounding a fox's lair with horsemen to frighten out the young cubs. For the education of the hounds, and to control numbers of course.

It's a slight variation upon the phrase, Let the dog see the rabbit.

This just proves what a NASTY VILE SHOWER poor excuses for human beings OW.:yeahthat: 

"That whole 'Chipping Norton set' should be the first lot up against the wall when the revolution comes."
 
Thank heavens ! There was me fearing it would be the solid Tory citizens of Pease Pottage...

https://cuttingedge2.forumotion.co.uk/t44-pease-pottage-conservative-club

Of the entire "Chipping Norton Set" it's only Jeremy Clarkson who actually lives in Chippy. The other denizens, from Dave through Lord Chadlington (Selwyn Gummer as was) and on to the Brookses, live in outlying villages.

Not everybody knows that, and even fewer actually care.

I wonder if there is a link between these stories?  
 
Boris Johnson, the man in charge of the Metropolitan Police's priorities, attacked by MPs as scandals mount up
 
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/jul/07/boris-johnson-metropolitan-police-scandals
 
Fraud allegations are ‘a political smear’, says Grant Shapps
 
Extracts from an article by Michael Crick:-
 
The Metropolitan Police has decided not to investigate allegations about the past business affairs of the Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps made by the Labour MP Steve McCabe.  But, in an unusual move, the Met has told McCabe that lawyers who advised the police concluded that the selling of the software may be ”an offence of fraud” and perhaps other offences.

Grant Shapps still has many questions to answer on these matters.  Given his call for the BBC to be more “transparent” in its activities, he will be under pressure to be equally transparent about his own business affairs.
 
http://blogs.channel4.com/michael-crick-on-politics/constitute-offence-fraud-police-drop-case-shapps/3588

Ivan wrote:...Boris Johnson...

The articles were to say the least, worrying. However, the biggest worry, as I pointed out in another post, is that Boris may well end up leader of the Tories. He is much more dangerous than Cameron. People tend to think of him as a buffoon because of his (I believe carefully cultivated) eccentricities. He is not. I think he has been playing a very astute long game. As mayor of London, for all his shortcomings, he is exempt from the evil odour that clings around the parliamentary conservative party and will waft in to a safe seat at the next election. People may feel that Cameron has few saving graces and little compassion for the working classes... be warned... Boris has NONE. I really do think we could see violence on the streets if he gets to #10.

I think you got this one spot on bellatori, but do you not think that the majority of the people in the UK know this, there is not a Tory MP that has ONE caring bone in their body they are all "COLD AS ICE"
:yeahthat:

Redflag wrote:I think you got this one spot on bellatori, but do you not think that the majority of the people in the UK know this, there is not a Tory MP that has ONE caring bone in their body they are all "COLD AS ICE"
:yeahthat:

Actually RedFlag, no, I don't think they know. Boris is a bit of a lad... lovable eccentric so typically 'British'. He handles the media well and when it all goes wrong such as when he ended up suspended trapped on a wire he still managed to come out with a positive spin. When they parachuted him in as MP for Richmond, the blue rinse brigade thought he was lovely. It is because he seems to be able to hide behind that slightly bumbly hale fellow well met facade that I think he is so dangerous. With Cameron, what you see is what you get. One could say that he is an honest politician. You expect Tory, you get Tory. Not IMHO so with Boris. I think he could turn out to be the nastiest of the lot.

When they parachuted him in as MP for Richmond

 
Henley-on-Thames.

Ivan wrote:

When they parachuted him in as MP for Richmond

 
Henley-on-Thames.

Mea Culpa - I should have looked it up instead of trying to remember. Can't have been more than a couple of miles out  

I knew it was somewhere I had rowed past!? Henley on Thames sounds much more pukka and up market  

I wonder where they will parachute him in in 2015?!

Bellatori wrote:-
I wonder where they will parachute him in in 2015?!

 
Funny you should mention that! Zac Goldsmith offered to give up his seat in Parliament to Boris Johnson - not exactly a more democratic move than whatever went on in Falkirk. So which seat is Goldsmith currently representing? Richmond Park & North Kingston.

My personal attitude towards the buffoon is summed up in the very old expression, Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself.

blueturando wrote:-
continuously calling someone a troll because they have differing views from your own sounds a bit like the bullying unite leaders sending the heavies rounds to bully the wife and children of a company director....Now I see where you get it from.

 
Typical troll behaviour. I don’t support bullying in any shape or form, so don’t try and suggest that I do, especially as you have no evidence to back up your wild assertions - yet again. I also don’t support companies bullying workers into accepting cuts in their living standards, using the threat of losing their jobs if they don’t. Neither do I support Iain Duncan Smith bullying people into what amounts to slave labour for their paltry benefits, leaving them little or no time to look for ‘real’ jobs.
 
Instead of making cheap and personal points about a serious matter, you might like to reflect on the fact that workplace bullying and harassment affects one in three employees across the UK. This excellent novel covers this distressing issue with much less flippancy and far more sensitivity than you possess:-
 
https://cuttingedge2.forumotion.co.uk/t624-a-woman-of-valour-by-tamara-west

oftenwrong wrote:My personal attitude towards the buffoon is summed up in the very old expression, Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself.

His big GOB will give the game away OW, becuse he thinks us Plebs are too thick to see right through him.

Redflag wrote:

oftenwrong wrote:My personal attitude towards the buffoon is summed up in the very old expression, Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself.

His big GOB will give the game away OW, becuse he thinks us Plebs are too thick to see right through him.

He reminds me a little of that other Boris... Yeltsin. A real crowd pleaser. People would forgive him his blunders. I think the same is true of our Boris. A lot of people will not see through him. Enough, I reckon, to get him into Cameron's job after the next election. After that then God help us...

Don't let Boris anywhere near a tank, then!

At least Yeltsin had the excuse that he was drunk for his behaving like a fool.........

You're spot on astradt1, but with Doris closing fire stations and police stations I tend to think the normal people of London will have seen right through Doris.:yeahthat:

Redflag wrote:You're spot on astradt1, but with Doris closing fire stations and police stations I tend to think the normal people of London will have seen right through Doris.:yeahthat:

I hope you are right but I fear you may be wrong. With Cameron at least all we have to do is grit our teeth and cope until 2015. The Grandees will then give him short shift for being a loser. Hopefully in 8 years time by then Boris will have self-destructed. One can only hope.

Bellatori wrote:I hope you are right but I fear you may be wrong. With Cameron at least all we have to do is grit our teeth and cope until 2015. The Grandees will then give him short shift for being a loser. Hopefully in 8 years time by then Boris will have self-destructed. One can only hope.

 
Do you mean the Tory party will allow DC to stay on as leader after he loses the general election in 2015?  Because if you think that anybody North of the Watford Gap will vote Tory in 2015, Dream On. I would imagine even the BNP or EDL would be voted for before Tory or UKIP (second hand Tory party).   After this 5 years the Tories will have to keep their hand on their BUTTS a long time before the general public would vote Tory again, to be honest if Labour do not measure up I could see a peoples party being the next big political party.:yeahthat:

Do you mean the Tory party will allow DC to stay on as leader after he loses the general election in 2015?  Because if you think that anybody North of the Watford Gap will vote Tory in 2015, Dream On

How much you wanna bet they will Redflag? Name a figure?

Redflag wrote:Do you mean the Tory party will allow DC to stay on as leader after he loses the general election in 2015?  Because if you think that anybody North of the Watford Gap will vote Tory in 2015, Dream On. I would imagine even the BNP or EDL would be voted for before Tory or UKIP (second hand Tory party).   After this 5 years the Tories will have to keep their hand on their BUTTS a long time before the general public would vote Tory again, to be honest if Labour do not measure up I could see a peoples party being the next big political party.:yeahthat:

 
Not what I meant. I think the Grandees will dump Cameron. My guess is that whether they have an interim (Hague again    ) or go directly for Boris it will be he whom the Labour party will face in 2020 at the election after next. However that should give Boris enough time to totally screw things up for himself. I really do believe Boris to be cleverer and more dangerous than Cameron. With Cameron you see Tory and you get Tory. With Boris you see amiable consensus bumbler but what you get is Margaret Thatcher on amphetamines. People really seem to like him and what is worse they forgive him his trespasses as the saying goes.

It's been observed that many women choose their husband for no other reason than that he makes them laugh. Maybe that's why they vote for buffoons like Boris.

Redflag. Please don’t rise to the bait. Just keep the following Wikipedia definition in mind, and don’t let anyone drive you off the topic of 'Is there another Tory scandal brewing?':-
 
“A troll is a person who sows discord on the internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.”