Home Office minister Robert Jenrick has been caught speeding again, just five months after last flouting the limit. Speed cameras filmed the senior minister bombing it down the M1 at 68 mph in a 40 zone at 11.30pm after appearing on Any Questions at Wakefield Cathedral. The police on the other hand have no questions – the CCTV was bang to rights…
The second speeding indiscretion was booked on August 5 last year, just five months after he received a fine and three points for speeding in the same Land Rover on the A40. He now faces a driving ban…
Jenrick’s need for speed comes just three months after his fellow minister Tom Tugendhat was whacked with a six-moth driving ban for using his phone at the wheel. Tory grandee Lord Soames also faces a driving ban after being caught speeding at the end of January. When the public asked for conviction politicians…
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura K, Nicholas Soames bemoaned the coarsening of politics in recent years, saying the Commons has “become a rougher, coarser place… it’s got very unpleasant”.
“It’s become a rougher, coarser place… it’s got very unpleasant”
Sir Nicholas Soames tells @BBCLauraK his grandfather, Winston Churchill, would be “deeply perplexed” by the state of British politics, as he leaves Westminster after 37 years as a Tory MPhttps://t.co/6E440eWA6S pic.twitter.com/rbew8pE3Pc
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 31, 2019
That would be the same Nicholas Soames who during his years as an MP has:
- Called Nigel Farage a “twat”
- Blasted Tory MP Adam Afriyie as a “chateau bottled nuclear-powered c*nt” who is “totally f*cking disloyal, a f*cking disgrace to your party, your fellow MPs, your Prime Minister and your country”
- Started woofing at a female SNP MP in the House of Commons Chamber
- Shouted “Boy! Boy! Sit down boy” when then-short haired junior minister Yvette Cooper started speaking in the Commons
- Told James Cleverly to “F*ck off you c*nt”
- Was accused by six female MPs of being “the most prolific source of vulgar and sexist comments in the House of Commons.”
- Would often ask working-class John Prescott, “Mine’s a gin and tonic, Giovanni, and would you ask my friend what he’s having?“
Guido reckons civility in politics will only go up when Soames starts enjoying his retirement…
Heckled by Stop Brexit man (who was shouting from the sidelines), Sir Nicholas spoke for millions. “Oh shut up you silly arse.” Quite.
Nick Boles’ tweet about Theresa May’s “timidity and lack of ambition” has resonated with both Leave and Remain Tory MPs and right-leaning publications. Nicholas Soames is the latest to come out and call the government’s policy programme “dull dull dull”:
It really won’t be enough to get people to vote against The Corbini they must have really sound reasons to vote Conservative.We really need to get on with this#wherestheboldandbravesofaritsdulldulldull
— Nicholas Soames (@NSoames) January 22, 2018
This isn’t just awkward Sarah Wollaston types or long-standing Remainers and May critics like Ed Vaizey. The lack of ideas and ambition in Number 10 has been the main concern of large numbers of MPs since the election, echoed even by May’s former chief of staff Nick Timothy. MPs have been sending each other Juliet Samuel’s coruscating critique of the government in the Telegraph this morning – it’s hard to argue with her:
“Talk to people at any level of the Conservative Party. You can ask MPs, council leaders, party officials, local associations and you get the same description. There’s no direction. Nothing is happening. The operation is headless, clueless. What’s the public evidence of this? Well, just consider the terrible wounds inflicted on this Government with growing frequency. Many of them aren’t its fault when they first emerge, yet somehow, they “become” its fault.”
They agree over at ConservativeHome, where Paul Goodman pleads this morning for some direction and fresh ideas:
“Why should she not deliver a series of speeches, over the next year, to set out why, in her view, the social market, as Keith Joseph put it, works better than the socialist state?… There’s much that the Government could do without proposing new laws that Parliament would vote down. On the NHS and social care, it could set up a Royal Commission… On schools, it could lift the cap requirement on new faith schools… On skills, it could advance Boles’ plan for new two year technical diplomas… On housing, it could free up more state-owned land… On ownership, it could have a look at Michael Fallon’s ideas, including tax breaks for companies that offer free shares to employees…”
Instead Gavin Barwell has reportedly once again shot down the hugely popular Vote Leave policy of spending the Brexit dividend on the NHS, to the outcry of colleagues like Rob Halfon. The unrest over the lack of policies has been bubbling away for months, it is starting to come out into the open…
Sir Nicko on the DAB pic.twitter.com/bPNpTuQFDw
— Nicholas Soames (@NSoames) 5 July 2017
He tweeted: “Sir Nicko on the DAB”…
It’s a one horse race in Mid Sussex…
