Just another day in the Conservative Party

Embed from Getty Images

And it's only just gone six!

From the Independent:

Matt Hancock has been placed under investigation by parliament’s standards commissioner – for allegedly "lobbying" the sleaze watchdog to influence its findings.

The parliamentary commissioner for standards confirmed on Wednesday afternoon it was looking into the former health secretary’s conduct for "lobbying the commissioner in a manner calculated or intended to influence his consideration of whether a breach of the code of conduct has occurred".

From South Wales Argus:

A Conservative member of Pembrokeshire County Council, alleged to have said that all white men should have a black slave, has withdrawn from the political group and referred himself to the Ombudsman.

Conservative county councillor for Haverfordwest’s Prendergast ward Andrew Edwards is claimed to have made the comment in a recording, which it is said was then sent to Pembrokeshire County Council’s monitoring officer.

From Lancs Live:

Blackpool South MP Scott Benton is one of three MPs who has been placed under investigation by parliament's standards watchdog.

The politician - currently suspended by the Conservative Party - is under investigation for allegedly misusing his parliamentary email address. According to the Commons standards watchdog, Mr Benton's case opened on Tuesday (April 11) and concerns the "use of facilities [parliamentary email address] provided from the public purse".

From Nation Cymru:

A prominent Young Conservative who tried to become a Cardiff councillor last year has posted a video on social media in which she launches a condescending attack on the people of Wales and its capital city.

Jasmin Cogin, who stood unsuccessfully in the Cyncoed ward in the 2022 Cardiff council election, is seen sitting in a living room with bookshelves behind her and a caption on the screen which reads: "Welsh people have lower IQs. Sorry not sorry x".

From the Guardian:

Henry Smith, a backbench Tory MP for 13 years, is also being investigated for an alleged breach of the rules on using taxpayer-funded stationery. 

The Joy of Six 1114

Neil Schofield Hughes thinks Sue Gray's appointment as Keir Starmer's Chief of Staff is a problem: "I have no idea what induced Gray to accept this post - although it’s obvious that she was disgracefully used by Boris Johnson, forced to provide a human shield for Johnson’s wrongdoing and then sidelined - but surely she can see how dangerous it is for the Service, and even for Constitutional government."

And so is Isabel Oakeshott's decision to hand Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages to the Daily Telegraph, says Steven Barnett.

Oliver Balch reviews Urban Jungle: Wilding the City by Ben Wilson: "Wilding our cities does not even need a top-down push. Ripping up our lawns and allowing wildflowers back in can do wonders. Back gardens, after all, can count for around one quarter of a city’s total area."

Party colours used to be much less fixed - Jon Kelly on the seats where Tories weren’t blue and Labour wasn’t red.

"No matter how provocative, obscure, and even obscene it may be, Pynchon’s novel makes American literature richer by its existence and continuing relevance, serving as a sort of experimental laboratory for exploring what can be done within the scope of a novel." M. Keith Booker marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.

Tom Cox visits Nottingham and its history, taking in the Park Tunnel, The Great Cheese Riot and much else besides.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: No camel could have sacrificed his penis in a finer cause

The new Liberator has dropped, as the young people put it, so it's time to spend another week with Rutland's most celebrated fictional peer.

Monday

Eventually, even the humiliation of one’s enemies palls, and I am no longer watching that extraordinary new series of Hancock’s Half Hour set in the jungle. (Besides, have you seen the price of telephone calls these days?) 

Nevertheless, I still maintain that no camel could have sacrificed his penis in a finer cause than making Matt Hancock feel thoroughly sick. Did you know the man has left a wife and three children, one of them adopted? 

That’s why I would never allow one of the Well-Behaved Orphans to be taken into the household of a Conservative Cabinet minister. However, if you are not a Tory bigwig then you are welcome to email your enquiry to sales@homeforwellbehavedorphans.rut.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Lib Dems, the blue wall and the "Boris Johnson toxicity factor"

Embed from Getty Images

"It was incredibly cringe. We all knew that," says one senior Liberal Democrat. "We all thought, this is awful, but it’s also brilliant. And it worked, right?"

Ailbhe Rea - her Twitter handle is @PronouncedAlva - reveals that the blue wall Ed Davey smashed down with his hammer five days was ordered from Grantham five days before the Chesham and Amersham by-election.

And it did work:

Overnight, the "blue wall" was cemented in the political lexicon to name and amplify an idea that had barely been acknowledged before: that the Conservatives are vulnerable in a lot of their traditional, southern seats, and vulnerable in particular to the Liberal Democrats, who are second to them in 79 of those constituencies. 

Which is encouraging, given that I blogged this back in May:

The idea of a blue wall that may crumble will appeal to the media and a Lib Dem victory in Chesham and Amersham will give that idea more credibility.

And that will gives the Tory government a headache as it is faced with defending its gains in the red wall while keeping its traditional voters in the blue wall happy.

Particularly as there is nothing in Boris Johnson's journalistic or political career to suggest that be believes in levelling up anything.

Rea, who sets a new record for the number of "senior Liberal Democrats" consulted for one article, suggests the danger the Conservatives face is actually that they are too interested in pleasing their new red wall voters:

The Conservatives are, famously, pursuing a "Red Wall" strategy, having courted and now hoping to retain voters in Labour’s traditional heartlands. This has been in the expectation that their own traditional voters will stick with them – and in 2019, they did. But the current Conservative government has little to offer these traditional Tories and much to repel them – such as planning reforms, which were a major factor in the Chesham and Amersham contest. 

"They’re leaving their flank open and we’re coming in and having a big good go," Davey told me during the campaign in Amersham. That’s before you look at the underlying demographic shifts in these seats, the gradual post-Brexit realignment of British politics, and the "Boris Johnson toxicity factor", which senior Liberal Democrats identify as one of the biggest current Conservative vulnerabilities among its traditional voters – a factor they think was masked at the last election because of the similar unpopularity of Jeremy Corbyn. 

"There’s no doubt that dislike of Johnson in the seat wasn’t just an overnight thing," says a senior Liberal Democrat. "We were also getting the sense that they didn’t like him before. But they voted Tory before because of Corbyn."

"He was toxic. Maybe former Labour people like him. Maybe former Brexit people do. But a lot of traditional Tories don’t like him," they add. Those traditional voters are less keen on Johnson’s entire approach to politics: the conduct of Brexit, the proroguing of parliament, or what they see as a wider culture of impunity in his top team, exemplified by the Dominic Cummings and Matt Hancock scandals. It is a private worry of plenty of Conservative MPs too. 

Maybe they will end up alienating both red and blue walls? That would be fun to watch.

Why the fury over sunbathing?

Embed from Getty Images

Who is harder to avoid when you are out for a walk and more likely to pant out the deepest recesses of their lungs: a jogger or a sunbather.

The answer is obvious, but no one gets upset that people are still going jogging.

But we do read stories like this about sunbathing:

People who sunbathe are breaking the coronavirus lockdown rules, according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Thousands of people have already chosen to ignore the Government’s guidance this weekend, with many enjoying the sunny weather in parks and other public places. 

And with temperatures expected to hit 20 degrees on Sunday, more people are expected to be outdoors. 

But those who choose to bask in the sunshine outside their own home have been warned that they are breaking the lockdown orders. 

'Sunbathing is against the rules that have been set out for important public health reasons,' Hancock told Sky News on Sunday morning.

I suppose it's that jogging is seen as healthy exercise and sunbathing as a form of self-indulgence. But such feelings have little to do with the objective risk to others the activities pose.

Note too the loose employment of terms like 'rules' and 'orders'. Whatever happened to obeying the law?

And the press seems keen to stoke this prejudice against sunbathing - all those foreshortened photos to make parks look more crowded than they are. 

Perhaps they want to take the heat off the government by finding alternative villains?