Confirming the details of Guido’s exclusive yesterday, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab announced in his Conference speech this morning that the government plans to reform the Human Rights Act. They will detach it from the ECHR, enabling quicker deportations of convicted criminals and swifter action on domestic abusers:
“Too often [the public] see dangerous criminals abusing human rights laws. In one case, a drug dealer convicted of beating his ex-partner, a man who hadn’t paid maintenance for his daughter, then successfully claimed the right to family life to avoid deportation. Conference, it is absolutely perverse that someone guilty of domestic abuse could claim the right to family life to trump the public’s interest in deporting him from this country. We’ve got to bring this nonsense to an end. So, today I can tell you that, under this Prime Minister and before the next election. We will overhaul the Human Rights Act to end this kind of abuse, and restore some common sense to our justice system.”
You’re either in front of Guido…
The relatively new “Common Sense” group of Tory MPs had a joint reception with Esther McVey’s Blue Collar Conservative group at conference last night, in a room so small, hot and cramped that if attendees didn’t have Covid beforehand they almost certainly will now. Partygoers were treated to a panoply of speeches, from the Common Sense chair and vice-chair Sir John Hayes and Tom Hunt, Express Editor Gary Jones, Attorney General Suella Braverman and Esther McVey herself. Thankfully Guido had positioned himself by the bar before the procession of common sense champions began their speaking relay race…
Among the usual no-nonsense, common-sense platitudes, Esther pricked the room’s ears when name-dropping a recent meeting she’d had with the former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. She claims the ex-spook said he was “shocked” how easily in the last 18 months we gave up our freedom.
“He said he was shocked, and he lived behind the iron curtain in the cold war and he said they had not given up the freedoms that we had given up. So we must fight to get our party back on track”
McVey didn’t reveal the original reason for her meeting with Sir Richard – discussing the possibility of the first female Bond Guido wonders?
The campaign group Defund the BBC is hosting a debate at Conservative Party Conference on whether the BBC licence should be reformed or scrapped. Speakers include former Secretary of State Rt Hon David Davis MP and Reasoned presenter Darren Grimes.
Successive governments have backed away from confrontation with the BBC at the last minute and the campaign group is looking to ensure that doesn’t happen again.
“The BBC licence is a discriminatory tax which unfairly hits the vulnerable hardest” Campaign Director, Rebecca Ryan says, adding “but it’s also totally archaic and unpolicable. The BBC can only continue to raise funds this way through coercion and threats. It’s time for the BBC to join the 21st century and move onto a voluntary subscription model that covers just BBC content.”
The event takes place on Tuesday October 5th 2021, 4pm, Rylands Suite, Novotel.
Guido managed to grab a word with the new Foreign Secretary, whose conference workaholism has stood out in comparison to her holiday-loving predecessor. She confirmed that a date has been set for her first visit to India – October 22nd. Her date recall tallies with Playbook’s report last Wednesday’s that Boris plans a trip to the country ahead of COP in November…
Co-conspirators will remember Boris was very keen for a trade trip to India in April, cancelling it last minute due to the country’s rapidly deteriorating Covid crisis. Guido had looked forward to attending that trip, so he’s hoping invites will once again be offered out to the media. Among other topics, the foreign secretary confided in Guido she was finding the new department’s mandarins to be “a bit ‘Yes, Minister'”…
A day after Insulate Britain glued themselves to the road for the ninth time (and one of their leading activists admitted he’d have no issue with blocking an ambulance from delivering a dying patient to hospital), the Prime Minister has waded in to give the eco-terrorists a piece of his mind. Speaking on LBC this morning, Boris said:
“That is insane. There are some people, Nick, who call those individuals legitimate protesters…they’re not. I think they’re irresponsible crusties who are basically trying to stop people going about their day’s work, and doing considerable damage to the economy. And that’s why we’ve taken the powers, and why Priti Patel is doing the right thing, to bring in powers so that they can get six months [imprisonment] or an unlimited fine…”
The sooner those powers are properly enforced, the better…
An amusing moment from Seb Payne’s book promotion event this afternoon, with Payne acknowledging his remarkable resemblance to the man sat on-stage opposite him: the Right Honourable Michael Gove MP. Speaking as the event kicked off, Payne quipped:
“I’m glad you changed your glasses as otherwise this would have looked like a father-son reunion.”
Are they even wearing the same tie?
