Just an aside, my boss was behind Dr Fox the DJ at flight checkin desk. He couldn't stop laughing when Dr Fox, checked in by confirming his name, Dr Fox. Pop picking prat.
It's always the way isn't it? Very rarely do we get these direct insights into lobbyists behaviour. Remove lobbying and there would be a hell of a lot more mates advising. As Brentford said they don't want him to go back bench yet, and into the arms of the Victorian one policy Tories; especially the crank Admirals and Generals.
It does have the money, it's just tied up in the offshore bank accounts of people like David Green and the other 8-9% who own most of the countries wealth...
It does have the money, it's just tied up in the offshore bank accounts of people like David Green and the other 8-9% who own most of the countries wealth...
I presume you mean Philip Green the retail millionaire.
What should we do then ? just ask him for the money he has earned through retailing and hand it out to the lazy chavs and dale farm non-travellers so that we can all live happy ever after - i'm sure he won't mind.
These 8-9 % of the people don't "own the country's wealth" - they were made wealthy in this country, which is very different.
The country is skint due to some extremely poor decision-making and borderline unpatriotic political policies by Blair and Brown.
Made worse by meaningless wars in Iraq, Libya and Afghan.
It's just like running up a huge credit card bill - at some point you have to pay it off, and that's where we are at right now.
If you are in the UK "boat" you have to pull your weight, otherwise you are non-paying cargo and will be ditched as the seas get rougher.
The country's wealth stems from natural resources and manufactured goods for export - and we don't really have much of either nowadays.
Things are not helped by those pesky bankers who are gradually rebuilding their reserves at the expense of the ordinary public, whilst only lending money to
solid prospects - at TEN TIMES the base rate !
It's time for a bank like the Co-op to go for it and get a bigger share of the market, or the resurgence of mutual building society type institutions who are not focused solely on high margin lending.
Picture of dear old Maggie stepping out on her 86th birthday yesterday, it said in the text that she'd helped Dr Fox celebrate his birthday recently, showing she was a "true IRON lady"!!!!
The problem with this country is that it is for the greedy and feckless - in the past, one party stood for one and the other the other. In recent times, despite what they said, they didn't really do much differently. Milliband said all the right things for me in his speech at the labour conference about the clue being in the name etc... but Labour had sufficient time to do things when it was in power that it didn't address so lot of trust has to be won. Let's be honest, Blair and Mandelson ar eemore right wing than some Tories. This country is badly broken and it is about time we had some proper alternatives and get rid of the systems. As for Politicians- if any of us did what Dr Liam Fox has done we would be sacked - irresspective of where you stand politically (and neither main party can crow) the right thing surely has to happen.
Picture of dear old Maggie stepping out on her 86th birthday yesterday, it said in the text that she'd helped Dr Fox celebrate his birthday recently, showing she was a "true IRON lady"!!!!
Oi! Can we get back to slagging of our excuse of a Defence Minister please and not open this up into a discussion of how Labour's policies have managed to cause a worldwide recession.
For my part this bloke is either gay, corrupt, stupid or a combination of those. I couldn't less about the first as long as he's up front about it but as for the second two, they're not qualites I want from the person in charge of our countries armed forces.
Maybe there were some clues in those papers his cabinet buddy threw away in that park bin? Armarndo Iannucci must be frantically taking down notes as we speak...
Oi! Can we get back to slagging of our excuse of a Defence Minister please and not open this up into a discussion of how Labour's policies have managed to cause a worldwide recession.
For my part this bloke is either gay, corrupt, stupid or a combination of those. I couldn't less about the first as long as he's up front about it but as for the second two, they're not qualites I want from the person in charge of our countries armed forces.
Maybe there were some clues in those papers his cabinet buddy threw away in that park bin? Armarndo Iannucci must be frantically taking down notes as we speak...
He's not gay (as though it matters), not corrupt (at least not on the evidence that I've seen), he's certainly not stupid, that leaves arrogant enough to think that because he has a job in government he can direct work and policy towards his friends. It seems that Werrity was being paid by a bunch of oro-US, Pro-Isreal and anti-Europe business people who think that British foreign policy isn't sufficiently pro-American/Israel and not opposed enough to Europe. Given our support for and involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan I wonder what planet these people are on and the recentish appointment of Tony Blair as the Middle-East Envoy means that a pro-Israeli hawk is "negotiating" as a honest peace broker in the region - something you couldn't really make up given TB's pro-Americanism. By pro-Americanism I mean craven support of the Neo-Colonialist agenda.
Liam Fox is one of the more right-wing Conservatives and I suspect there's more than a bit of born-to-rule about him which has given him the impression that the niceities of doing things by the book are for other people.
Cameron should sack him - but that would anger the right, who would wonder why say Vince Cable remained in employment while he had to go, he can't afford to piss off the right and and yet still needs to maintain links and credibility with the centre. At the very least Fox needs to be shifted on to a new department as it's clear he has zero credibility to do his job.
Unfortunately Cameron is a weak leader and also a bit of a born-to-ruler himself, but sacking Fox puts aright-winger on the backbenches - and in just the right position therefore to stab him in the back.
So "directing work and policy towards his friends" doesn't meet your definition of currupt then?
I don't think he's doing it for personal pecuniary gain - at least I've not seen any evidence of that so far (that might change) more because he has a right-wing political agenda and seems to want to push that rather than fill his pockets and support some pro-neo-con Americanarms dealer friends. Exactly what Werritty is getting out of this is another matter, he seems to have been paid as a consultant/lobbyist but is shall we say leveraging his contacts very heavily and also very profitably.
Bad but not in the Mark Thatcher arms dealer league, at least not yet.
I don't think you have to do it for personal gain for it to be corrupt - it was done for the gain of his friend.
Yep, untangling this is taking some doing and no doubt there's more to come which may change things. Any advisor to the government needs security clearance and given the nature of the MoD that would I presume be higher than at other government departments and there's the question too of whether Fox and Werritty were discusssing confidential matters and the special interest conflict.
Fox has been more naive/foolish than corrupt although he must surely have been aware that Werritty was being paid to represent some people while he was taking his and therefore their opinions on board and also whether Fox via the MoD was sticking any contracts the way of the people who were funding Werritty. From what I can't make out that is not yet proven. What concerns me is that the people who are funding Werritty seem to think that the MoD and our defence policy isn't being right-wing enough and that's after a decade of involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and after being an apologist for Israel for decades and refusing for example to censure Israel in UN SC resolutions. Anyone who thinks we should be pursuing an agenda in line with the PNAC crew needs to stay as far away from government and sharp objects as possible, they've gotten us into enough ill-advised trouble.
The other problem is that Fox perceives himself as the true heir to Thatcher and has some links to a few right-wingers in American political/business circles that are a little to close for my comfort. I can't see that his job is any way tenable if he's going over the head of Cameron and the cabinet and making up and using the MoD to advance policy not agreed on by the government. Then there's the use of his office and connections to pursue that agenda internationally. Fox should not be outsourcing government to outside interests and especially not those who are funding Werritty. As I say there's more to come...
No doubt he'll be pleading his innocence but claiming that the allegations made it impossible for him to do his job properly so he's resigning for the good of the government.
i ll give it 2 years and he ll be on a reality show ! or doing a TV ad perhaps?
perhaps a tearful confessional about how he has hidden his sexuality..(who cares!)
Dr Fox you have brought shame and embarassment to your country .....i ll hear no more of you.. go away ! and please dont ever com back like Mandelson !
I don't think that he and Cameron get on - Fox pulled a flanker on Cameron and Osborne and forced them to reduce the cuts to the MoD last year (meaning more cuts fell on transport, the NHS, education etc) so I doubt that many in the Cabinet will be pleased to see him depart, but he seems to have the support of te Tory right who think for some bizarre reason that Cameron isn't being right-wing enough. That's true, he still got a milion unemployed to find to catch up with the milk snatcher.
Comments
NONSE
SENCE
David "I'm worth £40 million" Cameron has no experience or understanding of what his policies are doing to far too many families right now.
Maybe this could be a topical "WOULD YA" Jesme or Adam???? if only I knew how to upload pictures.
Cheeky little bit in the Sun today.....
Picture of dear old Maggie stepping out on her 86th birthday yesterday, it said in the text that she'd helped Dr Fox celebrate his birthday recently, showing she was a "true IRON lady"!!!!
They know.
Oi! Can we get back to slagging of our excuse of a Defence Minister please and not open this up into a discussion of how Labour's policies have managed to cause a worldwide recession.
For my part this bloke is either gay, corrupt, stupid or a combination of those. I couldn't less about the first as long as he's up front about it but as for the second two, they're not qualites I want from the person in charge of our countries armed forces.
Maybe there were some clues in those papers his cabinet buddy threw away in that park bin? Armarndo Iannucci must be frantically taking down notes as we speak...
He's not gay (as though it matters), not corrupt (at least not on the evidence that I've seen), he's certainly not stupid, that leaves arrogant enough to think that because he has a job in government he can direct work and policy towards his friends. It seems that Werrity was being paid by a bunch of oro-US, Pro-Isreal and anti-Europe business people who think that British foreign policy isn't sufficiently pro-American/Israel and not opposed enough to Europe. Given our support for and involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan I wonder what planet these people are on and the recentish appointment of Tony Blair as the Middle-East Envoy means that a pro-Israeli hawk is "negotiating" as a honest peace broker in the region - something you couldn't really make up given TB's pro-Americanism. By pro-Americanism I mean craven support of the Neo-Colonialist agenda.
Liam Fox is one of the more right-wing Conservatives and I suspect there's more than a bit of born-to-rule about him which has given him the impression that the niceities of doing things by the book are for other people.
Cameron should sack him - but that would anger the right, who would wonder why say Vince Cable remained in employment while he had to go, he can't afford to piss off the right and and yet still needs to maintain links and credibility with the centre. At the very least Fox needs to be shifted on to a new department as it's clear he has zero credibility to do his job.
Unfortunately Cameron is a weak leader and also a bit of a born-to-ruler himself, but sacking Fox puts aright-winger on the backbenches - and in just the right position therefore to stab him in the back.
I don't think he's doing it for personal pecuniary gain - at least I've not seen any evidence of that so far (that might change) more because he has a right-wing political agenda and seems to want to push that rather than fill his pockets and support some pro-neo-con Americanarms dealer friends. Exactly what Werritty is getting out of this is another matter, he seems to have been paid as a consultant/lobbyist but is shall we say leveraging his contacts very heavily and also very profitably.
Bad but not in the Mark Thatcher arms dealer league, at least not yet.
Sir Mark Thatcher if you don't mind!
Yep, untangling this is taking some doing and no doubt there's more to come which may change things. Any advisor to the government needs security clearance and given the nature of the MoD that would I presume be higher than at other government departments and there's the question too of whether Fox and Werritty were discusssing confidential matters and the special interest conflict.
Fox has been more naive/foolish than corrupt although he must surely have been aware that Werritty was being paid to represent some people while he was taking his and therefore their opinions on board and also whether Fox via the MoD was sticking any contracts the way of the people who were funding Werritty. From what I can't make out that is not yet proven. What concerns me is that the people who are funding Werritty seem to think that the MoD and our defence policy isn't being right-wing enough and that's after a decade of involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and after being an apologist for Israel for decades and refusing for example to censure Israel in UN SC resolutions. Anyone who thinks we should be pursuing an agenda in line with the PNAC crew needs to stay as far away from government and sharp objects as possible, they've gotten us into enough ill-advised trouble.
The other problem is that Fox perceives himself as the true heir to Thatcher and has some links to a few right-wingers in American political/business circles that are a little to close for my comfort. I can't see that his job is any way tenable if he's going over the head of Cameron and the cabinet and making up and using the MoD to advance policy not agreed on by the government. Then there's the use of his office and connections to pursue that agenda internationally. Fox should not be outsourcing government to outside interests and especially not those who are funding Werritty. As I say there's more to come...
More to come indeed.
He's resigned. Had to really.
Not the end of it by any stretch.
What a noble soul!
perhaps a tearful confessional about how he has hidden his sexuality..(who cares!)
Dr Fox you have brought shame and embarassment to your country .....i ll hear no more of you.. go away ! and please dont ever com back like Mandelson !
rant over
I don't think that he and Cameron get on - Fox pulled a flanker on Cameron and Osborne and forced them to reduce the cuts to the MoD last year (meaning more cuts fell on transport, the NHS, education etc) so I doubt that many in the Cabinet will be pleased to see him depart, but he seems to have the support of te Tory right who think for some bizarre reason that Cameron isn't being right-wing enough. That's true, he still got a milion unemployed to find to catch up with the milk snatcher.
I don't think we've seen the last of Foxy - I think he'll be back, maybe even challenging for party leadership... You heard it hear first!