Attorney General Suella Braverman has this morning released a statement saying she is “carefully considering” referring the Colston statue case to the Court of Appeal, following Wednesday’s jury verdict that the four suspects charged for pulling down Bristol’s Edward Colston statue had been found innocent. Writing this morning, Braverman said:
“Trial by jury is an important guardian of liberty & must not be undermined. However, the decision in the Colston statue case is causing confusion. Without affecting the result of this case, as Attorney General, I am able to refer matters to the Court of Appeal so that senior judges have the opportunity to clarify the law for future cases. I am carefully considering whether to do so.”
Presumably the Court of Appeal will reiterate that even when the jury are idiots, the verdict is the verdict…
Try explaining this headline to somebody 24 hours ago. On LBC this morning small business minister Paul Scully was asked by Nick Ferrari about the Molly Mae libertarianism controversy that Guido reported on yesterday afternoon. In classic ministerial question spinning, Scully managed to turn the issue into espousing the need for ‘levelling up’, while also agreeing with the bikini-clad star that “an aspirational approach to life is no bad thing”. Odds on Molly making an appearance at this year Tory Party conference?
Twitter-obsessed co-conspirators may have noticed the name “Molly-Mae Hague” trending today, as the former Love Island winner gets slammed by left-wing whingers for her comments on aspiration and hard work. Speaking on a podcast the Pretty Little Things creative director espoused:
“I just think you’re given one life and it’s down to you what you do with it. You can literally go in any direction.”
“When I’ve spoken in the past I’ve been slammed a little bit, with people saying, ‘It’s easy for you to say that, you’ve not grown up in poverty, you’ve not grown up with major money struggles. So for you to sit there and say we all have the same 24 hours in a day is not correct.”
Naturally Molle Mae’s belief that individuals are responsible for their own lot in life, and that hard work can improve one’s life, have outraged the left, branding her “gross” and “tone deaf” and even “a little mini-Thatcher girl boss”:
Guido thinks 2022 could actually be the year of the “Thatcher Girl Boss” …
US comedian Jon Stewart has denied accusing Harry Potter author JK Rowling of antisemitism, and told media outlets to “eat [his] ass” for distorting lighthearted comments he made about the series in a fortnight-old podcast discussion. The claims that he’d accused Rowling of antisemitism – for the series’ depiction of hook-nosed goblins running banks – first appeared in Newsweek on Tuesday, and were then picked up by multiple other outlets, including Variety, Rolling Stone, the Express and GB News. Loath to get wrapped up in yet another JK Rowling culture war (who can blame him?) Stewart hit back:
“[Let] me just say this super-clearly, as clearly as I can, ‘Hello, my name is Jon Stewart. I do not think JK Rowling is anti-Semitic. I do not think the Harry Potter movies are anti-Semitic. I really love the Harry Potter movies, probably too much for a gentleman of my considerable age.
[…]
Get a f*****g grip.”
Nonetheless, Twitter had already erupted with claims that the ‘Gringotts Goblins’ were evidence of Rowling’s antisemitism, not least from left-wingers still resentful of Rowling’s past criticisms of both Jeremy Corbyn, Scottish independence and the ever-lasting trans-rights debate. As Dave Rich, director of policy at Jewish charity the Community Security Trust said, “Sometimes a goblin is just a goblin.” Guido can’t help thinking those who immediately identify goblins as Jewish caricatures might want to double-check their own unconscious biases…
Read the main bullet point revelations from each letter below.
Geidt to Boris – 17th December
- Geidt says the emergence of the ‘lost’ Whatsapp message “caused me to test my confidence in my earlier conclusions”
- PM maintains that the text doesn’t undermine his previous statement that at “no point in the eight months until late February 2021″ was he aware that the costs were being met by Lord Brownlow personally
- A number of his original conclusions “may have required further examination or qualification had the Missing Exchange been known to me”
- “More crucially, I doubt whether I would have concluded, without qualification, what is set out in paragraph 33 of my report, that ‘at the point when the PM became aware, he took steps to make the relevant declaration and to seek advice.”
- “It is plainly unsatisfactory that my earlier advice was unable to rely on the fullest possible disclosure of relevant information”
- Geidt believes the standards were not met in the Cabinet Office’s attempts to access all exchanges
- Geidt believes this incident has “placed at risk” public confidence in ministerial standards
Boris’s response to Geidt – 17th December
- PM repeats “the humble and sincere apology I gave when we discussed this matter earlier today”
- As reported earlier, he blames the lost messages on having to change his phone after his personal number came to light via Popbitch
- Seems to place some blame on Geidt for not giving the government advanced copy of his report
- PM is willing to consider Geidt’s recommended changes to the remit of the Independent Adviser to the ministerial code and will meet “early in the New Year” to discuss
Geidt’s concluding letter – 23rd December
- While the new disclosure didn’t result in a change to his original conclusion, it exposed “a signal deficiency in the standards upon which the Independent Adviser… have an absolute right to rely in establishing the truth in such matters.”
- “Potential and real failures of process occurred in more than one party of the apparatus of government”
- The absence of any attempt to inform Geidt that Brownlow had offered to share his PM Whatsapp with the Cabinet Office however this offer was declined was “unwise given the high standards” the PM set for him
- Geidt wants the following improvements in powers to his office:
- Increase in the level of dedicated official assistance
- Offered the highest standards of openness, including full and prompt responses to requests from Ministers, SpAds and officials
Despite implementing facemasks for all pupils just to look like they’re doing something to keep schools open, a government review has admitted the evidence for using masks in schools is “not conclusive”.
That phrase appears to be overly conservative, given a study of 123 schools last October found that those using masks saw a reduction 2-3 weeks later in Covid absences from 5.3% to 3% (2.3 percentage points); by contrast, schools without masks saw Covid absences drop from 5.3% to 3.6%, a drop of 1.7 percentage points. All of this wasted energy comes at the expense of learning quality, with 94% of school leaders and teachers saying it makes communication between teachers and pupils more difficult…
It already sounds like pupils are taking it upon themselves to shun this Covid theatre, however. According to the NASUWT teaching union, pupils at six north west secondary schools are refusing to do lateral flow tests and wear masks. One Lancashire school has reportedly got just 67 children out of 1,300 willing to follow the guidance.
Guido observes this student rebellion is receiving far fewer plaudits than 2019’s ‘climate strike’…
