The New Tories - Ruthlessly Incompetent. Post Examples of Tory Stupidity Here

[brogdale]

Me? The 13th Duke of Wraggbourne? Here? In the Commons with my phone at three o'clock in the morning? With my reputation? What were they thinking of?

 

[Sue]

So the current narrative from the Tories appears to be that Wragg was snagged by some super smart, master criminal manipulator and he's very brave for owning up to essentially throwing his colleagues under the bus to try and save his own skin. (Apparently this all happened a year ago so presumably he's only 'fessing up now cos his role in this was about to be revealed. )

 

[brogdale]

So the current narrative from the Tories appears to be that Wragg was snagged by some super smart, master criminal manipulator and he's very brave for owning up to essentially throwing his colleagues under the bus to try and save his own skin. (Apparently this all happened a year ago so presumably he's only 'fessing up now cos his role in this was about to be revealed. )

So brave.

 

[cupid_stunt]

The law is an ass.

A firm of solicitors around here used to use the catchline, 'The law can be an ass, and you need someone to kick it'.

 

[Calamity1971]

So the current narrative from the Tories appears to be that Wragg was snagged by some super smart, master criminal manipulator and he's very brave for owning up to essentially throwing his colleagues under the bus to try and save his own skin. (Apparently this all happened a year ago so presumably he's only 'fessing up now cos his role in this was about to be revealed. )

Hunt said on the news, ' it happens to us all in everyday life '.
Nah, never happened to me.
Also looks like of the 12 numbers that wragg gave over 2 MP's replied by sending pictures of themselves!

 

[cupid_stunt]

The police must be all over this, and I am keeping my fingers crossed than it ends up being Dan Wootton, and he's shitting himself ATM.

 

[Calamity1971]

Which two Tory MPs are stupid enough to get naked pics and reply with images of themselves. Hmmm, tough one that !

 

[Calamity1971]

The police must be all over this, and I am keeping my fingers crossed than it ends up being Dan Wootton, and he's shitting himself ATM.

That would wrap things up nicely. Or as Pickman's model would say, ' turned out nice again'.

 

[brogdale]

Important fact; lad was with his wife when the image of the naked lady arrived.

 

[Karl Masks]

Are the cops actually investigating this?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Are the cops actually investigating this?

BBC says

The Met Police has confirmed it is "carrying out an investigation following reports that a number of unsolicited messages were sent to MPs over recent months".

Earlier this week, Leicestershire Police said it was "investigating a report of malicious communications" that had been made to them last month.

I'm not a lawyer or policeperson, so not sure what law/s might have been broken here.

As far as I know it's not illegal to post explicit nude photos in circumstances (i.e. the more sexual end of the 'dating' websites - as in grindr) so long as all concerned are over 18, the person posting the photo knows what they are doing, and it's the sort of website / app where anyone going on there knows that sort of photos is allowed. I think that 'cyberflashing' is only a potential offence where it's unsolicited or posted somewhere it's not specifically allowed.

There is a risk that photos posted to that sort of site - or to individuals - may then get shared somewhere else without your knowledge. i'm not sure if that's a criminal offence in itself, but threatening to do something nasty (like circulate the photos more widely) if person doesn't do something you want may come under the laws round blackmail, even if it's not demanding money.

 

[Saul Goodman]

BBC says
I'm not a lawyer or policeperson, so not sure what law/s might have been broken here.

Possibly Section 127 of the communications act 2003

An offence under section 127 CA 2003 may be committed in a number of different ways:

• s.127(1) – an offender sends, or causes to be sent, via a public communications network a communication that is either grossly offensive, or of an indecent, obscene, or menacing character;

Communications Offences | The Crown Prosecution Service

www.cps.gov.uk

 

[bluescreen]

Possibly also blackmail by the spearfishers.

 

[two sheds]

Sometimes you can only point and laugh.

Tories delete social media post plugging Britain with a US jet, a Canadian car and a defeated football team

The post on X also breached royal protocol on politics by using image of the king

www.theguardian.com

the party has now deleted another social media exhortation not to let “the doomsters and the naysayers” talk down Britain.

The post on X claimed that Britain was the second most powerful country in the world, illustrated by pictures including a Canadian-owned Aston Martin, a US F-35 fighter jet and a Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft developed by a European consortium while the UK was in the EU.

But the image may have been deleted from social media because it included a picture of King Charles – a breach of protocol since parties are meant to avoid dragging the royal family into political debate. Buckingham Palace did not comment, but it is understood that the post had been noted by senior palace officials before it was deleted last Friday.

 

[brogdale]

Sometimes you can only point and laugh.

Tories delete social media post plugging Britain with a US jet, a Canadian car and a defeated football team

The post on X also breached royal protocol on politics by using image of the king

www.theguardian.com

Canadian (owned) car, US jet and a German Monarch!

 

[Raheem]

William Wragg: Tory MP at centre of 'sexting scam' scandal stands down from two top Commons posts

Senior Tory quits role as select committee chair and as vice chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs.

news.sky.com

"Hi, I've just had an anonymous text telling me to step down from the committee, so..."

 

[Calamity1971]

In a bid to look like a regular guy, he kills off Adidas samba. His PR team are taking the piss out of him.
Plus, ' Tory trotters'

 

[pesh]

Others were speculating the shoes were a gift from Nike

 

[PR1Berske]

Today's House of Commons tussle will be this, the introduction of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill :

https://whatson.parliament.uk/event/cal47615

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-04/0189/230189.pdf

 

[brogdale]

Wrecking socialised health-care and treating workers like stock biting the arse that shat it all out...

 

[Jeff Robinson]

 

[Storm Fox]

View attachment 420184

There is no way that is going to age not like fine milk.

 

[Ground Elder]

How are they measuring people who don't want a job? Is it by the number of UC claims they've closed?

 

[sparkybird]

How are they measuring people who don't want a job? Is it by the number of UC claims they've closed?

There are also older people near retirement age who could work but can manage financially without it, so don't or only work part time. They wouldn't show up via UC claims.

 

[brogdale]

How are they measuring people who don't want a job? Is it by the number of UC claims they've closed?

16 -64 employment rate; pretty crude and the age criteria look a little dated, but nonetheless the trends are obvious:



What you might expect if a neoliberal state undermined primary health-care, restricted secondary health-care and gave up on elderly social care.

 

[Lurdan]

How are they measuring people who don't want a job? Is it by the number of UC claims they've closed?

The Resolution Foundation piece being quoted is here:
The jobs market recovery stalls - Resolution Foundation

It's an analysis of the ONS' April Labour Market overview
Labour market overview, UK - Office for National Statistics
and their April report on Employment in the UK
particularly 7. Economic Activity

The ONS source for their statistics is the Labour Force Survey they conduct not UC claim details
From their guide to labour market statistics - 6. Economic Activity


[Insert standard warning about lies, damn lies, etc.]

 

[BusLanes]

Someone called Mark Menzies turns out to be an MP for something called Fylde and he's in the Times tonight.

 

[PR1Berske]

A Tory MP is under investigation over allegations that he misused campaign funds and abused his position after making a late-night phone call saying he’d been locked up by “bad people” who were demanding thousands of pounds, The Times can reveal.

Mark Menzies, the Conservative MP for Fylde and a government trade envoy, rang an elderly local party volunteer at 3.15am in December saying he was locked in a flat and needed £5,000 as a matter of “life and death”. The sum, which rose to £6,500, was paid by his office manager from her personal bank account and subsequently reimbursed from campaign funds raised from donors.

£14,000 given by donors for use on Tory campaign activities had previously been transferred to Menzies’s personal bank account and used for his private medical expenses.

The Conservative Party has been aware of the allegations of potential fraud for more than three months and has taken no action. The MP was accused of paying for sex from a male escort in 2014.

The phone call came in the dead of night.

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“Are you on your own?” the man said, with urgency in his voice. “I’ve got in with some bad people and they’ve got me locked in a flat and they want £5,000 to release me.”

The caller was Mark Menzies, 52, the Conservative MP for Fylde in Lancashire.

He had rung his 78-year-old former campaign manager, a woman who The Times is not naming, waking her from her sleep to ask her to hand over thousands of pounds from a bank account containing donations to the MP’s campaign.

She told Menzies that it was 3.15am and she couldn’t transfer any money without leaving the house. He became angry, allegedly telling her it was “a matter of life and death”, and demanding she instead lend him the money from her own savings, according to an account she has subsequently given to friends and the Conservative Party.

The woman refused and told the MP that she would speak to his long-time constituency office manager, Shirley Green, in the morning. A few hours later, Green stumped up the money, telling local Tories that she had cashed in her Isa to do so. By then, the sum demanded had risen to £6,500.

Later that day, having been rescued from the flat in which he had been detained, Menzies rang the 78-year-old again.

He told her that he had summoned one of his staffers to London to collect him from the flat. On arrival, the junior staffer handed over his own money, a sum thought to be a few hundred pounds, which Menzies said he owed to two other men.

Asked if he was concerned he could be blackmailed again, Menzies said he would change his phone number.

The following day, on another call, Menzies said that he needed another £35,000 for medical bills.

Told there was no more money in the campaign funds bank account, Menzies was unperturbed. “Oh, we’ll raise some more,” he allegedly replied.

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A source close to Menzies said the MP had met a man on an online dating website and gone to the man’s flat, before subsequently going with another man to a second address where he continued drinking. It was falsely claimed that he had been sick at one point and several people at the address then demanded £5,000, claiming it was for cleaning up and other expenses.

The source said Menzies decided to pay them because he was scared of what would happen otherwise, but did not have the funds to transfer the money from his own savings. His aides gave him money “as friends who wanted to help”.

Thousands in campaign funds
Green was reimbursed the £6,500 she gave Menzies in December from funds donated by local supporters to cover the MP’s campaign expenses.

The money was in an account with the name Fylde Westminster Group and was set up as a local business group to allow supporters to donate to Menzies.

A source close to Menzies said that he had offered to repay this sum, but claimed local Tories controlling the account said he did not need to.

The practice of setting up a local business group is common among MPs because donors do not have to declare a donation to the Conservative Party in company accounts, and donors are not publicly declared at all until they reach a certain threshold. It was used to raise funds for his campaigning activities and was administered by his former campaign manager and by Green, his office manager.

 

[Bingoman]

Someone called Mark Menzies turns out to be an MP for something called Fylde and he's in the Times tonight.

View attachment 420335

Sounds all too weird

 

[PR1Berske]

Sounds all too weird

It sounds like either sex or drugs or a combination of the two. A "meetup" gone wrong, which he then tried to fix by using donor/local party funds, and all covered up by the wider party.