After a morning of debating the Assisted Dying Bill has passed the final hurdle in the Commons – the third reading. Off to the Lords…
So ends months of lobbying and skullduggery in parliament. Second reading was 330 ayes vs 275 noes, majority 55. Wes Streeting will be breaking a sweat…
This time:
Down to a 23 majority. Thin…
Not long after MPs and their teams get back from yet another recess holiday on 2 June Parliamentary staffers have been invited to not one but nine “Anti-Racism Online Workshops.” Taxpayer-funded…
Instead of doing casework it’s an hour and half of inclusivity training then off to lunch:
“The course is 90 minutes long and aims to increase confidence and the ability to engage in conversations with colleagues about race to foster a more inclusive workplace and, ultimately, contribute to decreasing our ethnicity pay gap. The first date is Tuesday 17 June from 10-11:30am, if the course is full please sign up to the waiting list as eight other dates are planned.”
At the same time staffers have the opportunity to take classes on “imposter syndrome” with the Commons’ Learning and Development manager:
“Explore Imposter Syndrome and how to counter it with qualified coach and in-House trainer. Including a group discussion, this one-hour presentation comes in two parts, exploring firstly, Imposter Syndrome, and secondly, Growing Confidence. This session will take place in-person on Social Mobility Day, 12 June, with a session online through Microsoft Teams taking place the following week on 19 June.”
Should be a laugh on the terrace after those sessions…
Culture minister Chris Bryant is in the Commons attempting to play down briefings that DCMS will be abolished in order to get rid of Lisa Nandy. It’s one way to do it…
Caroline Dinenage, chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee (who also wants to keep her job) noted “rumours abound that the whole DCMS is for the chop… perhaps he’d like to take the chance to put on record that this would be a horrible idea.” Bryant pooh-poohed those:
“I’m not going to put this rumour to bed – I’m going to bury it, because in the words of Stephen Sondheim, I’m absolutely certain that in a year’s time we will be able to sing as in the musical Follies, ‘I’m Still Here.'”
It ain’t over till Downing Street sings…
Yesterday Lucy Connolly lost her appeal against a 31-month sentence in jail after having pleaded guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred. Connolly posted one tweet in the aftermath of the Southport killings. Independent MP Rupert Lowe is mounting the case for her in the Commons…
Lowe has put forward a motion in support of Connolly and raised the matter at PMQs, asking Starmer:
“Does the Prime Minister agree that imprisoning Lucy Connelly a young mother with a 12-year-old daughter for one foolish social media post – soon deleted – is clearly not an efficient or fair use of prison?”
Starmer said “sentencing is a matter for our courts… I will always support the action taken by our police and courts to keep our streets and people safe.“ From mothers…
Completed sentences have not always been a matter solely for the courts seeing as Starmer has given his studied opinion on judges’ decisions at PMQs before. What changed?
Tory Gavin Williamson has signed on to Lowe’s motion. Jeremy Corbyn briefly signed on before withdrawing his signature. He changed his mind…
This comes at the same time as Mahmood says thousands of all but the highest-risk prisoners will be released early from prison to avoid the “total breakdown of law and order in this country.” Right…
Read the full motion below:
Continue reading “WATCH: Starmer Backs Lucy Connolly’s 31-Month Prison Sentence for One Tweet”
Starmer has clearly been listening to Stella Creasy’s band of EU rejoin campaigners in the Labour Party. Replying to Ed Davey in the Commons the PM said the surrender deal was just the first step:
“It is intended that this is beginning of a process to complete on what we’ve already agreed but also to have annual summits so that we can take our cooperation and coordination further step by step and we will do that whilst keeping to the red lines that we had in our manifesto.”
One example from yesterday has raised eyebrows in the UK defence community. The existing defence statement doesn’t commit to the Barnier 2018 template on defence cooperation and there are no binding commitments to European Defence Fund, European Defence Agency, and Permanent Structured Cooperation systems. Von der Leyen hinted yesterday there is worse to come on defence:
“Then there comes the second step that is necessary to negotiate a second agreement and here we detail out it’s again a process of detailing out budget contribution reciprocal market access and rules on security of supply and this will give that’s important in the end the UK industrial participation this is the goal that we have together.”
There is more to negotiate – on youth mobility Starmer refused to set a timescale and said Labour was aiming to “move at pace” to reopen the border to EU under-35s. Annual summits will demand annual progress towards the EU…
Starmer is in the Commons to give a ministerial statement on the UK-EU surrender summit. He will field questions from MPs. Expect fish, energy, and defence to come up…
Starmer says of youth mobility: “And it delivers for our young people, because we are now on a path towards a controlled youth experience scheme with firm caps on numbers and visa controls. A relationship we have with so many countries around the world, some actually even set up by the party opposite. We should be proud to give our young people that opportunity.” No word on how much it would be ‘capped’ by…
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”