Matt Hancock is 'two-faced' and 'was like a headless chicken' during COVID vaccine drive

After summoning the nation's top philosophers to examine the question of whether one can have no head but two faces, the judges made Sky News the winners of our Headline of The Day Award.

Lord Bonkers writes: Chickens, eh? This will cheer us all up...

Mike Hancock fails to assist European inquiry into his conduct

Embed from Getty Images

From the Portsmouth paper The News:

Former Portsmouth MP Mike Hancock faces censure after not taking part in a vote-rigging corruption inquiry. 

The former Portsmouth South representative, who was resigned from the Lib Dems, faces losing his ‘honorary associate’ title at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (Pace).

He also faces being denied access to its buildings.

That's an odd way of putting it: "was resigned from the Lib Dems".

What happened is spelt out in this 2014 BBC News report:

Liberal Democrat Mike Hancock has resigned from the party, officials have confirmed. 

The Portsmouth South MP, who had faced allegations he sexually assaulted a constituent, handed in his resignation earlier in the week. 

The news was only revealed in answers to questions posed by the Independent newspaper on Thursday. 

In June, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg told the BBC Mr Hancock had "no future" in the party and he would be expelled. 

Mr Hancock had already had the whip removed and is expected to remain in the Commons as an independent.

Hancock fought Portsmouth South as an independent at the 2015 general election but received only 716 votes.

The News report does not make it entirely clear, but it seems the inquiry has been instigated by the Council of Europe:

An independent investigation was set up to look into allegations of paid-for favourable votes for Azerbaijan’s government at Pace. 

The report said another investigation had said others and Mr Hancock ‘had been seen as friends and frequent guests of (the Azerbaijan capital) Baku’ and had ‘defended’ the autocratic country’s record. 

It found Mr Hancock was among the most ‘prominent apologists for Azerbaijan’. 

Mr Hancock was investigated in the report for speaking to journalists outside a polling station before the election had finished.

According to The News, Hancock says he chose not to get involved with the inquiry because of poor health.

I blogged about Hancock's record of support for Putin's Russia and Azerbaijan twice in early 2014:

• The worst thing about Mike Hancock
• Charles Kennedy "too weak" to challenge Mike Hancock

There you will find details of his extraordinary actions and opinions, right down to denial of the Armenian Genocide, and of his habit of employing beautiful young Russian women as assistants.

Six of the Best 615

Photo of Taylor Swift by
Jana Zills

Neil Barnett sets out to discover who funded Brexit - features an appearance by Mike Hancock.

Jeremy Corbyn does point to real economic problems facing Britain, but his solutions are based largely on wishful thinking argues John Van Reenen.

"Walk between the glassy offices and tucked-away churches of the City of London, along the thundering roads down by the Thames, and you can occasionally find staircases embedded in the sides of buildings. It’s not always clear that they’re public, but if you follow one upwards they sometimes take you to wide, deserted corridors leading along the flanks of buildings, crossing streets, and more often than not ending in truncated bridges or closed off dead ends." Douglas Murphy on the demise of streets in the sky.

Meg Neal takes us on a tour of the derelict remains of previous Olympic venues.

"The churchyard at Heptonstall actually houses two separate churches. One, a ruin that began decaying after a major gale in 1847 and a new church built to replace the one that was all but destroyed by the weather." Helen Cox visits Sylvia Plath's grave.

What's so bad about Taylor Swift and Pokemon Go? asks Mark Valladares.

19 October on Liberal England

19 October 2012

Liberal Democrat Voice has chosen five of its own posts from 19 October in different years.

Back in the old days, in the noughties, when the internet was in black and white, on for only three hours in the evening and closed down at 10 sharp with the National Anthem, these memes were the lifeblood of blogging.

In those days we were interested in other bloggers just because they blogged, and we took ourselves a little more seriously.

So join me as I journey back in time to see what Liberal England said on 19 October.

2014. I chose Stranger on the Shore by Acker Bilk as my Sunday music video. Two weeks later he was dead. The police couldn't prove a thing.

2013. Rather like today, I had just been to the Battle of the Ideas. I took the opportunity to photograph the disused platforms at Barbican station.

2012. Down in London for work, I photographed St Pancras in the autumn sun.

2011. The Daily Mail announced that Mike Hancock had resigned from the cabinet. He had, thank goodness, never been in it. What he had resigned from was the Commons defence select committee.

2010. I quoted evidence that A levels had got easier: "No wonder that York, like many other UK universities, now runs remedial classes in basic skills for students who know their stuff on their specialist subject, but don't make the basic grade for numeracy and literacy."

2009. My review of The Liberal Moment by Nick Clegg reached chapter 6. Never accuse me of not being a party loyalist.

2008. I asked if the Shropshire Star had driven Lembit Opik mad.

2007. In my House Points column for Liberal Democrat News I argued that Ming Campbell had been right to resign as Lib Dem leader and had a go at Mock the Week: "For 10 or 15 minutes they unleashed a tirade against Ming, all of it based on the assumption there is something inherently funny about being old. If they had attacked a woman or someone who was gay or black in the same way they would never have worked for the BBC again."

2006. I marked the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising.

2005. An anonymous wit had suggested that David Cameron was "born with a silver spoon up his nose".

2004. I didn't blog on 19 October - I don't recall the world coming to an end. The following day I quoted a tribute to Conrad Russell by Nick Clegg ("former Lib Dem MEP for the East Midlands and PPC for Sheffield Hallam"): "He was a striking, slightly beguiling figure. He walked with an intellectual's stoop, invariably with a cigarette in hand. A shock of white hair was permanently standing to attention above an angular, slightly hawkish face."

So that is Liberal England on 19 October. Music, railways and even a little politics.

Now what about your blog?

Don't fall for Jazzerbaijan

Sophie Bridger has an article on Liberal Democrat Voice about the most bizarre item in the programme for next week's Liberal Democrat Conference in Glasgow:

The European Azerbaijan Society will be holding their traditional jazz evening on Sunday, yet this organisation backs the Azerbaijani government that arrests, tortures and jails political activists and human rights campaigners. In Glasgow, activists go to conference. In Azerbaijan, they go to prison.

I have signed her petition saying the Lib Dems shouldn't take money from organisations backing dictatorships and human rights abusing regimes. I hope you will too.

More about the Azerbaijani regime's attempt to blind Western opinion to its real nature in a post of mine about Mike Hancock.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: The Great George Street rabbit

Friday

I call in at Great George Street to tip off the party’s bigwigs about a fellow called Hancock. Between you and me, gentle reader, he has been up to no good in both Portsmouth and far Azerbaijan, and the party must Do Something about him – I  am also told that Fleet Street’s finest are on his case.

“Don’t worry,” says a one of the nobs, “we are well aware that there may be problems coming down the track, so we have someone working full-time on our response to the Hancock Affair. It’s Benjamin over there.”

I look across and – by Gladstone! – sitting behind a desk is the very same rabbit that I nearly ran over the other and it has that familiar silly expression on its face. I fear this will not end well.

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

Earlier in Lord Bonkers' Diary...

Monday: In the shadow of Pendle Hill
Tuesday: Counting the teaspoons
Wednesday: Rabbit in the headlights
Thursday: A future leader of the Liberal Democrats?

When Patrick Rock lost to Mike Hancock

From the Daily Mail website this evening:

One of David Cameron's closest aides has resigned after being arrested on child pornography allegations. 

Patrick Rock has been closely involved in drawing up Government policy on internet porn filters. 

He quit after the Prime Minister learned he was at the centre of a police probe over images of child abuse.

Thanks to Stephen Tall for reminding us that Rock would have become a Conservative MP 30 years ago if he had not been defeated in the Portsmouth South by-election by, er, Mike Hancock.

As I remember it, Hancock's victory for the SDP came as a huge shock. Another Daily Mail article tends to confirm this.

Later. The by-election was caused by the death of the wonderfully named Conservative MP Bonner Pink. A little googling will bring up some unsavoury allegations against him too.

Perhaps Jonathan Meades was right about Portsmouth?

Mike Hancock is in hospital

From BBC News:

An MP suspended by the Lib Dems amid claims of sexual misconduct is in hospital, his office has confirmed. 

A statement on Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock's website said he had been "in hospital since the end of last week and will remain so for some time". 

His offices in London and Portsmouth remain open, the statement added. 

Mr Hancock, who stepped down from his seat on the cabinet of the city council earlier this month, underwent a number of major heart operations in 2012.

Portsmouth Liberal Democrats get tough with Mike Hancock

As ever, the real story is on Lib Dem Voice.

I am sorry about the East European subtitles, but I suspect Mike Hancock would appreciate them.

Pompey by Jonathan Meades

I had to collect a parcel from the sorting office this morning. It turned out to be a  novel I had ordered to help me understand recent events in the Liberal Democrats.

In his introduction to Pompey Simon Heffer writes:

This is an epic of the South Country, stretching over thirty years (and this is just in its English locations) from Wiltshire to Southampton and finally to the eponymous city itself, Portsmouth, a place brim-full of freaks and monsters and restless social mobility for whom 'dystopian' is an inadequate adjective.

You will see what I mean.

There is a claim about recent events in Portsmouth that disturbs me, but that I feel I am bound to pass on.

Adrian Lee says of Mike Hancock in the Daily Express:

He is said to have wooed her with wine, House of Commons mints and Steve Winwood music.

Charles Kennedy "too weak" to challenge Mike Hancock

Last week I blogged about Mike Hancock's worrying attitude to human rights in Eastern Europe. A little research has shown that concern at this goes back a long way.

In 2010 the Guardian reported the reaction of fellow ALDE members Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly (PACE):

Mágyás Eörsi, the former chairman of the parliamentary assembly's liberal group to which Nick Clegg's Lib Dems belong, said he and his colleagues were frequently "stunned" by the pro-Kremlin stance taken by Hancock during parliamentary assembly debates and amendments ... "I don't say that Michael is a spy," Eörsi said. "But I'm very sure that the Russians use Michael quite deliberately. He is the most pro-Russian MP from among all of the countries of western Europe. You just have to read his speeches. 

"When it came to debates on Putin, freedom of the media or the war with Georgia, Michael always defended Russia. Among the liberal bloc in Strasbourg we were all stunned by his position. According to him, Russia really is a fully fledged democracy."

Later the report says:

Eörsi, a Hungarian MP who led the assembly's liberal ALDE group between 2001 and 2009, said he grew so alarmed about Hancock's record on Russia that he raised the matter with Kennedy. "I warned Charles in 2006 there could be a scandal for the Lib Dems," he told the Guardian. "But he was too weak to intervene."

There were other odd things about Hancock's relations with the Russian government. In another Guardian report Eörsi recalled ALDE dinners in a Strasbourg restaurant:

Among their number was Mike Hancock, the flamboyant rebel Liberal Democrat MP from Portsmouth South. But while other delegates from the council's parliamentary assembly turned up alone, Hancock typically appeared with a glamorous young Russian woman, colleagues said. Sometimes he even brought two. 

"They were all the same type: long-legged, good-looking blondes, never older than 25, fluent in French, English and often German, and with a higher education." ... 

Former colleagues said they had raised serious concerns about the activities of Hancock's young Russian companions. They said they witnessed the alleged assistants using the computers of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (Alde), the liberal group secretariat, which were supposed to be protected by a password. 

"They knew the password. We had no idea what they were doing with the information. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps something," Eörsi said, adding: "I saw this myself." The computers allowed access to everything on the Council of Europe's central server.

Another concern about Hancock has been his continued support for Azerbaijan's continued membership of PACE, despite the growing evidence that its government is a tyranny.

As Caviar Diplomacy, a report by the European Stability Initiative, records, some had doubts about Azerbaijan being allowed to join in the first place:

Malcolm Bruce, a British Liberal Democrat, noted that PACE had usually withheld membership until a candidate state demonstrated its commitment to democracy by holding free and fair elections (which Azerbaijan had never done). He worried that Azerbaijan, if admitted prematurely, could roll back the limited progress it had made in previous years.

But Azerbaijan was granted membership, subsequently holding its first elections in November 2000. These were found to be unsatisfactory by a number of outside observers, including those from PACE itself.

Things have only got worse in Azerbaijan - read the Human Rights Watch page on the country to get a flavour of the regime. But, in recent years, every time that regime has been criticised in PACE it has been Mike Hancock who has got to his feet to defend it.

Caviar Diplomacy goes on:

Hancock did not leave it at making speeches in the assembly. He also played a leading role in trying to change the Council’s approach to election monitoring in Azerbaijan. During a PACE debate in September 2008, shortly before presidential elections in Azerbaijan, Hancock again turned against Andres Herkel [head of PAVE's monitoring team for the country's 2008 elections]. He accused him of being prejudiced and of “looking for excuses to rubbish the elections in Azerbaijan.” 

He then focused on the ODIHR, which was responsible for long-term election monitoring: “ODIHR was saying even before it got to Azerbaijan a month ago that the election would be full of problems. How can it know that – does it have some sort of telepathic power?” 

Hancock disregarded the fact that Azerbaijan had repeatedly ignored concerns by PACE rapporteurs and the Venice Commission about the unequal composition of election commissions. Instead, he recommended “testing the water to make sure that ODIHR was doing a good job and not simply going through the motions of pre-judging.”

It also reports on Hancock's politicking to get people who were more sympathetic to the Azerbaijani regime appointed to observe its elections.

Given his interest in this part of the world, it would be interesting to know how often Hancock has visited it. Unfortunately that is not possible.

In 2010 he explained the situation to the Guardian:

"All my trips were of an official nature," he said. He said he "hadn't a clue" about the precise number of his trips to Moscow because: "My passport fell in the sea. It got wet. It was in the early part of the year. "I'm getting a new one," he explained.

Mike Hancock's admiration for Benny Hill

In May of last year Mike Hancock put down an early day motion in support of Portsmouth and Southampton's joint bid to be the UK City of Culture for 2017. He remained its only signatory.

That motion ran as follows:

That this House welcomes the decision by Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils to run a joint bid for the UK City of Culture for 2017; recognises the remarkable heritage and enormous contribution to international development given by both cities; acknowledges their wide ranging historical links as well as outstanding maritime traditions; notes that such individuals as Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan-Doyle, Peter Sellers, Jane Austen and Benny Hill have all resided in Portsmouth or Southampton; and believes the joint bid is worthy of national recognition and support.

The worst thing about Mike Hancock

A year ago I quoted Mike Hancock's immortal words: "Why this obsession with political prisoners in Azerbaijan?"

A post by Daniel Hamilton on Trending Central shows that Hancock's attitude to human rights in Eastern Europe is far, far worse than that:

Through thick and thin, he has been an outspoken supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The former Hungarian MP Mátyás Eörsi who had the indignity of sitting beside Hancock in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said, “he is the most pro-Russian MP from among all of the countries of western Europe. When it came to debates on Putin [and] freedom of the media… Michael always defended Russia… According to him, Russia really is a fully-fledged democracy”. The travails of his former researcher-come-lover Ekaterina Zatuliveter, which involved allegations of involvement in Russian espionage at the very heart of Westminster, are well known. 

During the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia, which saw tanks move within miles of the country’s capital city Tbilisi, Hancock was an outspoken supporter of the Kremlin. As bombs rained down on Georgia, Hancock rather astonishingly delivered a speech thanking the Russian government for preventing the “genocide of the peaceful South Ossetia population”, while simultaneously ignoring the charred Georgian villages following Russian air strikes. Following the conflict, he wrote an article endorsing the de facto independence of South Ossetia and calling for the breakaway region’s “boundaries and borders to be respected”, despite the displacement of more than 30,000 ethnic Georgians from the region.

And so on and on, crowned with a reference by Hancock to "the so-called Armenian genocide".

All of which makes we wish I had done more than poke fun from the sidelines. I should have done more research and publicised Hancock's views long before now.

Report on Mike Hancock's conduct emerges

From today's Guardian:

A previously unpublished independent report has found evidence that veteran Portsmouth MP Mike Hancock sexually assaulted and harassed a constituent and made "unwelcome sexual approaches", the Guardian can reveal. 

Nigel Pascoe QC, a leading barrister in sexual crime cases, interviewed Hancock's accuser at length at the request of Portsmouth city council and concluded in August that there was evidence of sexual advances made by Hancock and that the MP was fully aware of his alleged victim's mental health problems. 

Pascoe also examined dozens of texts sent by Hancock to his accuser over a nine-month period from October 2009.

The report has not been published by the council, but a redacted version was sent to the constituent last week.

Mike Hancock has resigned from the Lib Dem parliamentary party

So says BBC political reporter Peter Henley on Twitter.

Later. And Politics Home has a party statement and the obligatory exchange of letters confirming it.

Mike Hancock to meet Nick Clegg on Monday

Mike Hancock, Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South, has been called in for an interview with Nick Clegg under party disciplinary procedures on Monday afternoon, says Chris Ship (the deputy political editor for ITV News) on Twitter.

Earlier today, during his regular LBC phone in, Nick Clegg said:

"As leader of the party, you have got to react when allegations of this seriousness are made, you can't just sit there on your hands.

"When I heard yesterday that court papers had been served for some very serious allegations - which I have to stress he denies completely, which when the police looked at it they didn't take further action, so I'm not prejudging that case - I immediately asked our chief whip to start disciplinary proceedings including the possibility of suspending the party whip. 

"The next step is that a meeting is held between myself, my deputy Simon Hughes, the chief whip (Alistair Carmichael) and Mike Hancock. We are hoping to do that today at the very earliest possible opportunity."

Liberal Democrat statement on Mike Hancock MP

Paul Waugh on Politics Home says the party has issued the following statement this evening:

“Following Mike Hancock’s receipt of legal papers in a High Court civil action, Nick Clegg has asked the Chief Whip to convene an urgent meeting under the disciplinary procedures of the parliamentary party between Nick Clegg, Mike Hancock, Simon Hughes and the Chief Whip. 

“Mike Hancock strenuously denies the accusations. We are not pre-judging the outcome of the case, but given the seriousness of the allegations, Nick Clegg has instructed the Chief Whip to invoke the disciplinary procedures of the party.”

Mike Hancock MP wins Quote of the Day

Here is the Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South, as quoted in the current issue of Private Eye:

"Why this obsession with political prisoners in Azerbaijan?"

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Meet Eva Vestoff

Wednesday

Who should I meet in Westminster but my old friend Mike Hancock? I ask him to pass on my congratulations to the delightful Katia Zatuliveter for her victory at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. I have never had much time for our Intelligence people: every one of them I knew in the 1930s turned out to be working for the Russians, and I don’t suppose things have changed very much since.

Besides, as I remarked to my personal secretary and masseuse Eva Vestoff only this morning, if every attractive young woman with an interest in British politics were sent home, then the business of government would soon grind to a halt. They are known, I believe, as ‘interns’.

Eva, incidentally, used to live in Italy, joined its (at least until recently) governing Bunga Bunga Party and served briefly in the Cabinet there.

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

Previously in Lord Bonkers' Diary...

• Rogered by a past winner of the 2,000 Guineas
• Sending a Jeremy Browne to China

Mike Hancock resigns from the Cabinet

It is not in the class of their reconviction of Amanda Knox (complete with descriptions of the scene in court and quotes from those involved) but the Daily Mail dropped another clanger on Twitter today.

Mike Hancock did not step down from the Cabinet but from the Commons defence select committee. He has never been anywhere near the Cabinet.

Although I am a loyal Liberal Democrat, I can't help thinking that is rather a good thing.