PMQ - Boris v Starmer - Spider And The Fly

[CHAPPERS]

Seriously, imagine doing this to the leader of the oppo who is also a lawyer

Labour has expressed alarm after a series of Conservative MPs, including a minister, shared a video tweeted by a hard-right Twitter account which falsely claimed Sir Keir Starmer obstructed the targeting of grooming gang victims when he led the Crown Prosecution Service.

The tweeted video was shared by Nadine Dorries, who is now a junior health minister, as well as Telford MP Lucy Allan and Maria Caulfield, who represents Lewes. All expressed alarm at what the video purported to show, with Dorries calling it “revealing”.

The 22-second clip from 2013 shows Starmer apparently recounting reasons why victims of grooming gangs might not be credible, talking about “the assumption that a victim of child sexual abuse will swiftly report what’s happened to them to the police; will be able to give a coherent, consistent account, first time; that they will not themselves have engaged in any offending or other behaviour; and that they will not have misused drugs or alcohol at any stage”.

The original tweeter, who also regularly posts anti-Islam messages and other hard-right content, titled the clip, “Keir Starmer explains why he didn’t prosecute grooming gangs when he was head if the Crown Prosecution Service”.

However, a fuller version of the video shows this is completely misleading. Starmer is in fact explaining why he had changed the prosecution guidelines, to move away from “a number of assumptions, which didn’t withstand scrutiny”.

A Labour source said:

This is a doctored video tweeted by far-right social media account. As a government minister, we hope Nadine Dorries acknowledges this and takes it down.

Dorries later did remove her tweet, as did Allan. Caulfield appeared to delete her entire Twitter account. None had as yet apologised for sharing the misleading message.

 

[Martlet]

Sadly though, the execrable Quentin Letts continues to shred The Times's reputation for cool dispassion. Jesus only knows why they signed him from the Mail - he should have gone to the Express, or become Farage's speechwriter.

I turned to his column this morning, keen to discover how he reported Johnson's defrocking by Starmer. Apparently, Johnson just wafted him away.

Totally agree - the Times had a brilliant sketch-writer before Letts came along.

I can only assume Rupert poached him from the Daily Malice with gigs at the Sun and the Times. Patrick Kidd always hints there's a lot more to the story.

 

[clapham_gull]

Seriously, imagine doing this to the leader of the oppo who is also a lawyer

I was watched this happening last night with disbelieve. I had to google one of the MPs posting the video because assumed it was a fake account.

They need to be brought before parliament and apologise.

 

[beorhthelm]

It's so easy to blame the public and declare Johnson innocent. Throw in a casual comment about hearsay rather than looking at the facts about carers and care homes.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...omes-asked-to-take-covid-19-patients-11969661

https://www.theguardian.com/society...hreaten-quit-over-return-coronavirus-patients

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...say-GPs-wont-visit-residents-coronavirus.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...patients-suspected-coronavirus-nhs-hospitals/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52606985

there needs to be more enquiry in to where the strategy for carehomes and elderly patients came from.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Totally agree - the Times had a brilliant sketch-writer before Letts came along.

I can only assume Rupert poached him from the Daily Malice with gigs at the Sun and the Times. Patrick Kidd always hints there's a lot more to the story.

John Crace's political sketches for the Guardian tend to SKEWER the subject matter nowadays. Easy pickings tho eh in a sea of mediocrity

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-bluster-under-keir-starmer-cross-examination

 

[The Clamp]

He only has one.

To pick holes in a unconstructive way of the handling of the biggest disease the worlds has seen in over 100 years.

He is still sore that he lost the anti-Brexit battle he tried to drive forward, and is looking for revenge.

Why can't he just do what's best for the country and for team Britain?

Golly! You really are very stupid, aren’t you.

 

[NooBHA]

Now I'm a dyed in the wool socialist, who likes nothing more than putting the boot in to the Tories.
However I acknowledge that this is a very difficult situation and no-one will know who had the best approach for a very long time.

Germany have started to see rises following the lock-down eases. This highlights the fact that unless everyone in the world enforces a total lock-down for 4 weeks, the virus is going to come back again and again.
Countries who may be lauded now, might be seen as fools when they are still in economic recession and a near constant cycle of lock-down, reprieve, lock-down.

What I do object to however is the refusal to come out and say what they are doing and their motivations.
Tell us that the focus is the economy and they believe that reaching Herd immunity is the only way out of this.
They could be right. It's going to be brutal, but they may end up being right.


Trying to switch focus to the general public and their responsibilities, is cowardice in the extreme and unforgivable in my opinion.

I like your views a lot on here BUT

I like you better when you were ''sticking the boot in'' -



I don't cut him any slack in this - Yes this has been a difficult time and is totally unprecedented - But he put himself up for the job.

He wants the parts of the job which tickle his ears with the popping out for photo shoots on a high wire and and having tea at the Women's Guild and having flag waving Brexiteers cheering his name.

He always has this opinion that when you are at the Top you can delegate all the shit jobs to those around him and below him.

The scenario he finds himself in he has to live and die by his decisions and he has to be seen out there leading the Nation and making difficult decisions. And he doesn't have the actual intelligence for all of that. He is floundering and he isn't totally responsible for foundering to the degree that he is. But more people have died than should have died to date.

As like any Virus it will take the lives of many - How many is in part down to his decision making then and now. We all know that the Economy has to be restarted. That has been drummed into all of us but he is rushing things because he wants to be popular again with some people. And he will be popular with the member of the Public who are desperate to get out of the Lockdown. Probably the same ones who were still going to the pub right up to the very last minute before the Lockdown.

He will be less popular with the people who sadly lost a friend or relative in the last few months or in the future. I am desperate to get out again but not at any cost.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Seriously, imagine doing this to the leader of the oppo who is also a lawyer

Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor, who prosecuted the grooming gangs.

[tweet]1260893908575432710[/tweet]

[tweet]1260858801542094849[/tweet]

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I was watched this happening last night with disbelieve. I had to google one of the MPs posting the video because assumed it was a fake account.

They need to be brought before parliament and apologise.

This includes Lewes MP Maria Caulfield, who has deleted her Twitter account altogether.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

there needs to be more enquiry in to where the strategy for carehomes and elderly patients came from.

Patently it didn't come from anywhere. It was an afterthought - if that's not too strong a word for it.

The inevitable Public Inquiry will inevitably show (as would basic common sense) that it was always a crap idea to dump discharged recovering elderly Coronavirus patients into care homes without any form of testing.

Tantamount to corporate manslaughter IMHO

 

[Grombleton]

He only has one.

To pick holes in a unconstructive way of the handling of the biggest disease the worlds has seen in over 100 years.

He is still sore that he lost the anti-Brexit battle he tried to drive forward, and is looking for revenge.

Why can't he just do what's best for the country and for team Britain?

As parody accounts go, this one isn't very good.

 

[clapham_gull]

Be amazed if Nadine Dorries is on her job as a cabinet minister by at the end of today.

 

[blue-shifted]

This includes Lewes MP Maria Caulfield, who has deleted her Twitter account altogether.

Come on then Tory voters, let's hear your defence to this.

 

[NooBHA]

Patently it didn't come from anywhere. It was an afterthought - if that's not too strong a word for it.

The inevitable Public Inquiry will inevitably show (as would basic common sense) that it was always a crap idea to dump discharged recovering elderly Coronavirus patients into care homes without any form of testing.

Tantamount to corporate manslaughter IMHO

Thats quite strong

However, I do concede that there should have been then - And there isnothing to stop it being created now. Some sort of '' half way house '' We have these Nightingale Hospitals now - Sections of these should be set aside as a ''care in the community'' type set up.

I don't know if we have the numbers to staff them but we should be preparing for it just in case there is a second spike after this release from lockdown

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Be amazed if Nadine Dorries is on her job as a cabinet minister by at the end of today.

I won't, we live in a timeline where where Priti Patel is still a minister.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Thats quite strong

However, I do concede that there should have been then - And there isnothing to stop it being created now. Some sort of '' half way house '' We have these Nightingale Hospitals now - Sections of these should be set aside as a ''care in the community'' type set up.

I don't know if we have the numbers to staff them but we should be preparing for it just in case there is a second spike after this release from lockdown

The London one is closing tomorrow although it is being put into hibernation.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/04/london-nhs-nightingale-hospital-placed-on-standby

 

[Gwylan]

Be amazed if Nadine Dorries is on her job as a cabinet minister by at the end of today.

She's not in the cabinet, she's a junior minister

Thirty years ago, this would have been a resignation matter but, sadly, that's no longer the case

 

[clapham_gull]

She's not in the cabinet, she's a junior minister

Thirty years ago, this would have been a resignation matter but, sadly, that's no longer the case

2 years ago this would be a resigning matter.

 

[maltaseagull]

It's so easy to blame the public and declare Johnson innocent. Throw in a casual comment about hearsay rather than looking at the facts about carers and care homes.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...omes-asked-to-take-covid-19-patients-11969661

https://www.theguardian.com/society...hreaten-quit-over-return-coronavirus-patients

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...say-GPs-wont-visit-residents-coronavirus.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...patients-suspected-coronavirus-nhs-hospitals/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52606985

I know we are in lockdown but prior to that, what else did you do?

It's incredible the amount of research you do to support your posts.

Is it really satisfying?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I know we are in lockdown but prior to that, what else did you do?

It's incredible the amount of research you do to support your posts.

Is it really satisfying?

I'm retired and have been for 6 years. It's fairly easy to Google for results. This situation applied to my inlaws so therefore I have been keeping an eye on it for nearly two months.