An eventful afternoon for the digi-Tories at CCHQ, as for about 10 minutes yesterday afternoon, the conservatives.com website and the app linked to a somewhat outdated fundraiser poster. Thankfully a co-conspirator was there to capture the moment…
Guido is happy that the two have apparently put the past behind them…
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has written to ACoBA Chair Lord Pickles over Boris Johnson’s minor breach of ACoBA rules over the summer, when the former PM picked up a new column in the Daily Mail. He was found to have breached the watchdog’s rules on former ministers’ appointments by seeking advice on the role half an hour before it was announced online. Even Pickles himself agreed this was a minor breach, and said the rules themselves were in need of immediate reform…
Dowden agrees, and confirmed the government will push ahead with proposals to loosen rules over media appearances:
“…the Government is minded that media appearances, books or journalism should in due course be formally exempted from the business appointment rules (whilst still maintaining duty of confidentiality requirements). This recognises also the importance of the rights to free speech within the law. This ‘minded to’ approach is therefore guiding in the assessment of appropriate steps on this particular issue.”
No further action is being taken against Boris. He’s making the rules and breaking them…
Read the full letter below:
Labour has come out in support of Lord Young’s amendment to the Levelling Up Bill which would ban smoking outside of pubs and restaurants. This is part of a coordinated campaign with over a dozen London councils and anti-smoking peers. The same move was attempted in 2021. Not only will Labour enact a New Zealand-style smoking ban, the party also supported Amendment 258 in the Lords last night, whose purpose “is to ensure that all pavement licences are smoke free”. Distraught Westminster wonks are talking about smoking inside pubs again in protest…
Local authorities can already enact such measures. So far only 10 have decided to do so, including Manchester City Council. That tells you all you need to know…
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage is the shadow Lords spokesman for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Transport. Last night she told the House:
“Amendment 258 would ensure that smoking and vaping does not impact on others. At the moment, pavement cafés are often marred for non-smokers, who find them difficult to use because smokers tend to see them as their own territory …
Going into a pub garden, for example, on a warm summer evening is often a great feature of our life in this country — that is, when it is not marred by rain. But it can also be marred by clouds of cigarette smoke or vape smoke, so we have to think differently about that.
There is also the issue of the cigarette ends that smokers leave. I have never understood why smokers do not think of cigarette ends as litter. The area outside a pub is often absolutely covered in cigarette ends. So there is the question of having smoke-free areas where there are cafés, pubs and restaurants.”
Simon Clark, director of smoker-rights group Forest, said the proposal was “insane. There is absolutely no justification for the government to ban smoking outside pubs and restaurants because there is no evidence that smoking in the open air poses a significant risk to non-smokers.” Boris isn’t here to block it this time. The bureaucrats are aiming for a “Fun Free Britain” by 2030…
As if it were in any doubt, Harriet Harman has once again revealed the political nature of the Priviliges Committee’s campaign against Boris Johnson. Speaking to Iain Dale at Edinburgh Fringe, the marsupial mastermind first defended her investigation – denying it was a Kangaroo Court – right before describing how they would prepare for sessions by mocking the former Prime Minister. The show trial’s rehearsals featured “absolutely hilarious” impressions of Boris Johnson, then a sitting MP, by a Commons Clerk. Harriet continued:
“We had two whole days of rehearsals of it, with one of the clerks being Boris Johnson, which was absolutely hilarious because he was ruffling his hair and roleplaying. And normally the clerks are very staid, sober, rational, logical people; but he really took to it.”
Seems a little roo-de…
Bad news for those hoping for Nadine Dorries to drop another political bomb on Rishi Sunak heading into Tory Conference – her book, The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, has been delayed until 9th November. HarperCollins say it’s to allow for more material, and for the “required legal process” to complete. Dorries warns it will make “House of Cards appear tame”. Get ready…
“What began as an investigation into how Boris Johnson was removed from office ultimately revealed a corruption of democracy deep at the heart of the Conservative Party and in Downing Street. Secrecy, fear and the cloak of anonymity have protected those who wield power in the shadows, until now. It makes ’The House of Cards’ appear tame, but this is no made up tale, it’s for real and for the first time, their political darks arts are about to be revealed.”
It was originally set to release on 28th September, just days before Conference. At least there’s still the by-election to look forward to around then…
Channel 4 is promising its upcoming Partygate dramatisation – yes, another Downing Street Covid drama – will be a “meticulously researched docudrama” which “takes viewers inside No 10”, as if there isn’t already a six-part series on Sky Atlantic which basically did the same thing. Almost the same thing…
While This England caked Kenneth Branagh with makeup that looked like he was having an allergic reaction to a bee sting, Channel 4‘s Partygate the True Story won’t feature Boris Johnson’s face at all. The show creators claim they took the “creative decision” to only show the back of his head whenever he appears on-screen. His voice will be provided by an impressionist. Groundbreaking television – this is the sort of thing that supposed to compete with the streaming giants…
