Tory minister for civil society Brooks Newmark resigns after sex scandal

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Im probably in the middle on this. Not going to defend him or say cited behaviour is that appalling, but theres something very squalid, naff and stupid abouth it. wouldnt really want my representitive to be any of those things.

 

[DotCommunist]

its a tory minister, his wife is lucky it was a consenting adult, and only online

 

[goldenecitrone]

Bad day for the Tories. Good day for everyone else.

 

[IC3D]

Having complicated relationships with different women myself it never ceases to emaze me how fucking nosey people think its any of their business and somehow I should be happy to discuss them in detail for their benefit. Total bullshit.

 

[DexterTCN]

Morally...it can only be good for a person to be caught in something like this, so let's not rend our garments that he was caught. Not getting caught would be bad for him on a spiritual level.

He is a married man, he has committed to one woman. He's not a car mechanic, he's not a doctor. The raison d' etre of his position is trust, not skill. His job is based on it...you can trust him, he has told those who vote for him.

He deserves ignominy.

 

[IC3D]

Morally...it can only be good for a person to be caught in something like this, so let's not rend our garments that he was caught. Not getting caught would be bad for him on a spiritual level.

He is a married man, he has committed to one woman. He's not a car mechanic, he's not a doctor. The raison d' etre of his position is trust, not skill. His job is based on it...you can trust him, he has told those who vote for him.

He deserves ignominy.

He's a Tory, who in their right mind would trust him in the first place

 

[Jollity Farm]

I'm not going to feel too sorry for him, because:

a) he chose to send out pix of his downstairs to some random on the internet, even though he is a grown man of fifty-six, and a public figure, and this is very soon after a number of famous women had had nude pictures of themselves non-consensually shared over the internet.

b) he resigned of his own accord, as far as I'm aware. Maybe he might have been hounded out of his job had he elected to stay, but since he didn't, we will never know.

But that doesn't mean I'm gloating about it, because the main amusement isn't even really about this. It's about bits falling off the Conservative party vehicle just as they pull into conference. And paisley pyjamas, of course.

 

[Celyn]

You think it's okay to destroy someone's marriage, to wield that social moral judgement media power? I think it stinks.

I know fuck all about the bloke or his wife or his policies. But I don't think he should be destroyed on that basis.

Destroyed? He resigned from the Cabinet and will continue as an M.P., so it's hardly as though he'll be queuing at the Jobcentre on Monday morning.

 

[Celyn]

I'm sending a cock pic to someone I don't know, I'm a Tory Minister, what could possibly go wrong?

And would it be fair to cry fowl if it does go wrong?

 

[Celyn]

Two bits of bad news so far. Just needs a bomb attack on their conference to complete the week.

Oh, I hope not. That might get them some sympathy.

 

[damnNAFTA]

I've noticed a lot of people seem to have an attitude that he is entirely to blame for the pictures leaking, I have to say I'm not sure how I feel about that. I don't think it's wrong to assume you would all be very upset if a married female politician sent out nude photos of herself to men online and one leaked them to the press (and to suggest she should have known they'd be leaked would rightly be called victim blaming). What makes this so different?

As some of you may be aware similar things happened to American conservative politicians earlier this year. Feminist writer/blogger Jessica Valenti wrote something I found pretty convincing about how we should think about these things: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/26/revenge-porn-victim-conservative-man-penis

 

[Nancy_Winks]

I don't think the guys been abused or deserves to be thought of as a victim ffs. I just do not think it's anyone else's (specially not the dirty papers) business.

 

[likesfish]

It was bloody stupid and potential blackmail material.
A minister is meant to be smarter than that.
The papers was in the wrong but the French style system where politicians have mistresses and 2nd families and nobody says anything covered up a massive amount of corruption.
also if your going lecture the proles about morality don't fuck around.

 

[teqniq]

I only saw all this this morning. It has made for a lovely Sunday wake-up.

And Mark Reckless lol. How appropriate.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Reckless and No-mark.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Exactly. It achieves fuck all except misery.

Good. I want anyone who wishes to be a tory MP to be miserable. And his wife too, she's not innocent, she's married the cunt after all. Harsh on their kids, but his 4 million quid in the bank, Belgravia gaff plus country house should ease the pain.

And the 20 something tory PR he was wooing with promises of using our tax to treat her in to bed, she was a bloke, lol

 

[maomao]

Disappointing really. You hear sex scandal and you hope for something a little more Mark Oaten-ish. I don't think that this lot of Tories have been banging on so much about family values as Major or Thatcher's lot, in fact the new morality seems to mean you can do anything you fucking like as long as you can afford it. However I don't have a millimetre of sympathy for any member of this government or anyone who willingly married one of them so I'll take what little pleasure I can from their public humiliation.

 

[Bakunin]

Brooks Newmark, yesterday:

 

[tony heath]

First reaction = poor little man

 

[tony heath]

The Tories used to be so stiff and proper, what happened?

 

[killer b]

sexting makes a beast out of all of us.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The Tories used to be so stiff and proper, what happened?

How do you know if he was stiff or not, have you seen the pictures?

 

[tony heath]

The Paisley Death
Did any good ever come out of Paisley?

 

[Sue]

The Paisley Death
Did any good ever come out of Paisley?

One of my best friends is from Paisley. No idea about her pyjama preferences though...

 

[Bakunin]

The Paisley Death
Did any good ever come out of Paisley?

Archie Scott Brown was from Paisley, if that helps at all.

 

[killer b]

paisley is the best of all patterns. if nothing else, we know that at least Newmark has a taste for stylish pyjamas. That must be a mitigating factor surely?

 

[Spymaster]

That large elements of the press are cunts is hardly news. But the roles of the press is in part to bring matters of public concern to the attention of the public. As he and his party are elected on issues of morality around marriage it is of concern to the people who vote for them or are likely too that their personal conduct conflicts with their policy stance.

He is in a Government that tells people how they should live there lives and how we should behave and do the right thing. Fuck him he is fair game.

The trouble with this is that it allows the tabloids a fearsome weapon to attempt to decide who can or can't be in government/business/sports etc., and what issues they are publicly judged on. Anyone they don't like they can sting.

By all means take this Newmark twat out on the basis of his support of shit politics. But for sending nob pics to a professionally contrived character who has specifically and intimately targeted him?

Do me a fucking favour.

You might think it's fine when it's a tory minister but when it happens to someone you like? Someone who in your view doesn't "deserve it"?

Any right thinking person should have major problems with tabloid "stings" that effectively create criminal or immoral behaviour that wouldn't have occurred otherwise, then use it to crucify the victims. And they are victims.

I think Mazher Mahmood should have been prosecuted for commissioning crimes in the Tulisa affair, and at first glance this case only seems to differ in the degree of criminality/immorality that the target has been entrapped into.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

From what I understand this is slightly different to Mahmood's MO.

The Mirror was tipped off about a number of MPs using social networking to lure in young women. They set up a twitter account pretending to be an early 20's female Tory PR, just chatting about shit and this sleazoid came on to 'her'. He made all the running, offering 'her' a trip to parliament, lunch (at our expense) etc. with the sole aim of getting in to 'her' kecks. If this is what our MPs are doing with our taxes, it should be exposed.

 

[Spymaster]

Sounds like bollocks to me; MP's 'luring in young women', but if that's how it rolled then I might revise my opinion. Need to get his version, and that may never happen.

But The Mirror themselves say:

During a late-night chat with the undercover reporter, who had sent him an explicit picture supposedly of “Sophie”, Newmark asked for a more explicit picture “without your hands in the way and legs parted”. He then said: “I will send you something in return – that way we each have a secret.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brooks-newmark-am-complete-fool-4337653#ixzz3EbTwmxvt

So "she" (actually a male reporter) sent him at least one picture first (they don't say if "she" complied with his request for another) and he eventually sent one back.

He is a MASSIVE fuckwit. But this isn't him "luring" someone, it's someone "luring" him. Entrapment.

 

[maomao]

This is my preferred method for trapping Tories