Police watchdog says global witness hunt has slowed investigation of PM’s friendship with entrepreneur when he was London mayor
The police regulator says it has been tracking down witnesses across the world, as it seeks to explain why it has yet to decide whether to launch an investigation into Boris Johnson and his relationship with the US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri.
Since late September the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has been evaluating whether to investigate the prime minister for possible criminal misconduct over his friendship with Arcuri when he was mayor of London.
Its decision had initially been expected in November, until the Observer learned that an announcement would be delayed until after the general election in December, effectively protecting Johnson from potentially damaging headlines at a crucial stage of the campaign.
Seven in 10 nurses say they look after patients in undesignated areas every day
A&E units are so overcrowded that growing numbers of patients have to be looked after in hospital corridors, warn nurses and doctors.
There are rising concerns that the “shameful” trend means people stuck in corridors are not getting the care they need, or they may be even coming to harm.
A&E health professionals say “corridor nursing” is becoming increasingly widespread as emergency departments become too full to look after the sheer number of people seeking treatment.
Negotiating mandate reveals Johnson seeks Canada-style deal and ‘regulatory freedom’
Boris Johnson is asking the EU for a Canada-style trade deal but will consider whether to walk away from talks in June and prepare for an “orderly” exit from the transition period.
Setting out its negotiating mandate for EU talks, Downing Street said it wanted “regulatory freedom” from the EU and would not accept any role for the European court of justice (ECJ) in dispute resolution mechanisms.
Questions remain unanswered over identity of donor who lent prime minister a property in Mustique over new year
Parliament’s sleaze watchdog has launched an investigation into Boris Johnson and the mystery over who funded his recent luxury Caribbean holiday, the Observer has learned.
Prompting fresh questions over the prime minister’s probity, the parliamentary commissioner for standards decided last week to pursue an official inquiry into Johnson amid unanswered questions over the identity of the donor who lent him a property on the island of Mustique over new year. It is the first time a serving prime minister has been investigated by the commissioner, who is responsible for regulating MPs’ conduct and propriety.
The development means that three high-level inquiries are under way into allegations surrounding Johnson’s conduct, including his relationship with US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri. A source with intimate knowledge of the most recent inquiry, but who requested anonymity, said: “These are serious issues which need to be properly investigated.”
Russia 'hired network of Britons to go after enemies of Putin'
MPs who drew up Russia report suppressed by PM were told of ‘infiltration’
Russia has been accused of hiring a network of British politicians and consultants to help advance its criminal interests and to “go after” Vladimir Putin’s enemies in London, MPs who drew up the Russia report suppressed by Boris Johnson were told.
In secret evidence submitted to parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC), the campaigner and financier Bill Browder claimed Moscow had been able to “infiltrate” UK society by using well-paid British intermediaries.
Some had “reason to know exactly what they are doing and for whom”, Browder told the committee. Others “work unwittingly for Russian state interests”, he said.
The alleged intermediaries include politicians from both Labour and the Conservative parties, former intelligence officers and diplomats, and leading public relations firms. Collectively, they form what Browder calls a “western buffer network”...
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
Frank Zappa
"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
Even before coronavirus, today’s Conservatives had a far worse record than the infamous governments of the 1970s. And yet they’re still likely to win another election
Next month the Conservatives will have been in power for 10 years. British parties who manage that anniversary are usually unpopular by the time it comes.
In 1989, Margaret Thatcher’s government lost its poll lead for good. By 2007 Tony Blair was no longer a dominant premier. Accumulating mistakes, personal burn-out, the difficulty of finding fresh goals and voters’ boredom with the status quo; all usually ensure that even parties with able leaders weaken and fall from power after three or four terms. To a large extent, the UK’s traditional sense of itself as a diverse, healthy democracy depends on it.
Yet recently our revered political pendulum seems to have stopped swinging. Last year, the Tories won their fourth consecutive general election, by a far larger margin than the others. Since then, their poll lead has swollen further. They are widely expected to win a fifth election, whenever it comes. No British party has done that since the early 1800s.
Such a great democracy. Even Trump will be jealous.
No but plenty like to forget what I said especially a certain captain bill and his gang. The cunt was useless from day 1 which is why the uk is in the mess it is.
It certainly was under Corbyn. In a report leaked to Sky News last Sunday it's been revealed that a secret cabal within the Labour Party's higher echelons has existed not to just to undermine Corbyn politically but to actively work to ruin Labour's electoral chances in order to put pressure on him. People who occupied top paid positions like the then director of the general secretary’s office, the party's executive director, general secretary, and the executive director for governance, membership and party services have been named in the report that was due to be submitted to the independent investigation into anti-Semitism being carried out by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) - Keir Starmer has now said that this report will not be submitted to the EHRC and has ordered an investigation into the leak.
The report's allegations range from examples of the merely childish -- top officials calling MPs 'pube heads', 'stinky', referring to female colleges as 'fat cows', or calling the huge numbers of people who joined the party after Corbyn was elected leader 'trots' and 'commies' -- to the significantly more serious. In once case, when a Black MP who had been subject to a sustained torrent racial abuse and threatened with violence, some of it sexual, was reported to be crying in a restaurant toilet (after having to report the abuse to the police for the umpteenth time) the WhatsApp messages of the group show them revelling in her misery before give her location to a hostile journalist just for the lolz.
But worse than that, and bearing in mind the allegations of anti-Semitism which dogged the Labour party in the run up to the 2017 election and beyond, it's been revealed that the office of governance, membership and party services - the department responsible for dealing with those kind of allegations whether against members or MPs - were deliberately sitting on complaints and grievances while briefing the press 'off-the-record' that there was no progress because Corbyn was directly interfering in the complaints to cover up anti-Semitism. Perhaps less surprising of craven political operative was the action this directorate-level group took to siphon additional money into the electoral campaigns of sympathetic MPs while pleading poverty to MPs and local parties who weren't. When the 2017 election result came in showing that Labour had soared to a 40% share of the vote, leaving the Tories without the working majority that subsequently forced them into bed with the Ulster Unionists, they not only considered it a disaster but vowed to redouble their efforts to 'make Corbyn unelectable.' You can see how recently appointed foreign office shadow Stephen Kinnock reacted to the 2017 surge for Labour towards the end of this video...
I think it's interesting that this story has been largely ignored in the media this week, especially by the usual suspects in the press who, on past form at least, one would expect to leap at the chance to publish a 'bad' Labour story. One can only hazard a guess as to why.
Rationalia relies on voluntary donations. There is no obligation of course, but if you value this place and want to see it continue please consider making a small donation towards the forum's running costs.
Details on how to do that can be found here. .
"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
Frank Zappa
"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
Well Corbyn was useless and I said so from the day he was elected but I was crucified both here and on RatSkep. Labour has given up. What's left?
You are crucified because you are totally unable to construct a rational argument in any subject.
Sent from my penis using wankertalk. "The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007. "Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that.. "Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt. "I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.
Sent from my penis using wankertalk. "The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007. "Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that.. "Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt. "I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.