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Failing Grayling Back In a Job (or not!) - Chairmanship of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee

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MotCO

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Sky News also reported that, since the Committee no longer has a Tory majority, a sensitive report whose publication has been held back may now be released!
 

Busaholic

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Lady Bracknell might have had something to say about this. It was previously officially announced that Grayling was going to become Party Chairman in a Theresa May reshuffle, but Central Office were so appalled at the prospect they put out their own statement saying it wasn't true (and, indeed, it never happened), now this. It appears that only some of the population of Epsom and Ewell have any faith in the dullard, for reasons I can't fathom.

The 'toys out of the pram' reaction from Johnson is pure Trump-ism at its worst. The sooner our respective countries get rid of their supposed 'leaders' the better it'll be for their populace.
 

BJames

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This was one of the funniest things I've seen all day. How typical of Grayling to have basically been handed the job by the Prime Minister and still fail to be elected.

A big success though I think: serves No.10 right for thinking they can just put whoever they want in there.
 

Peter Mugridge

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It appears that only some of the population of Epsom and Ewell have any faith in the dullard, for reasons I can't fathom.

As a resident of Epsom, I can answer this - he's actually a very, very, good constituency MP who is always very aware of local issues and is on top of them. Unlike most MPs, he also tries to show his face in the constituency at least once a week, and makes an effort to talk to the ordinary members of the public.
 

Busaholic

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As a resident of Epsom, I can answer this - he's actually a very, very, good constituency MP who is always very aware of local issues and is on top of them. Unlike most MPs, he also tries to show his face in the constituency at least once a week, and makes an effort to talk to the ordinary members of the public.
Fair enough - I guessed it might be something like this.
 

DelW

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Surely a classic case of cutting off nose to spite face?

Having failed to get their stooge elected as chairman (of a supposedly independent and non partisan committee), the worst possible "revenge" is to make an enemy of the MP who was elected. Sacking him is hardly likely to make him toe the Johnson / Cummings line!

Looks like a good outcome all round - one in the eye for Boris and Dominic, a potentially effective and independent minded chairman, and the utterly useless Grayling unable to do more damage than he managed at Transport and particularly Justice, where his disastrous "reforms" are still being expensively undone.
 

jfollows

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I think it's funny and I'm pleased at what's happened.

I think it points to one of Boris Johnson's fatal weaknesses, which will do for him in due course - he doesn't like confrontation or telling people what they don't want to hear, so he packs his cabinet with sycophants and rewards people like Grayling for their loyalty rather than for their ability. During the period of Covid briefings it was noticeable that when bad news had to be delivered, someone else was usually "fingered" for the task, yet when "good" news came along it was always Boris giving it.

I can relate to Chris Grayling being a good MP because mine is Esther Mcvey and I've been surprised that instead of just a flurry she seems to remain active and involved in constituency issues. I don't like her politics one little bit, and I'm never going to vote for her, but I won't condemn her for the good work she appears to be doing as well.
 

nlogax

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Couldn't be more pleased to see Grayling even fail to secure a job which was allegedly rigged in his favour for MONTHS. I really needed that laugh.
 

edwin_m

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A bit surprised this has already fallen off the front page of the BBC news site, and they haven't wheeled Kuenssberg on to comment. It's almost as if they're afraid of biting the hand that feeds them... Although they do say the Russia report will come out next week.
 

Tetchytyke

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We should probably keep an eye out to see what else they release/announce on the same day when everyone's looking the other way.

Probably something about the alleged £1bn Covid contract fraud The Guardian have been reporting on.

Which after all this build up will probably turn out to be a damp squib :lol:

Probably, though sacking Lewis could spice it up a bit.
 

brad465

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We should probably keep an eye out to see what else they release/announce on the same day when everyone's looking the other way.
The Government have now announced they believe there was Russian Interference in the 2019 election, citing the US-UK trade document leak. The report to be released does not cover the 2019 election, it was ready long before then, so the dead cat throwing appears to already have begun.


"Russian actors" almost certainly sought to interfere in the 2019 UK election through illicitly acquired documents, the government has said.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said any attempt to meddle in UK democracy was "completely unacceptable".
 

GRALISTAIR

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Surely a classic case of cutting off nose to spite face?

Having failed to get their stooge elected as chairman (of a supposedly independent and non partisan committee), the worst possible "revenge" is to make an enemy of the MP who was elected. Sacking him is hardly likely to make him toe the Johnson / Cummings line!

Looks like a good outcome all round - one in the eye for Boris and Dominic, a potentially effective and independent minded chairman, and the utterly useless Grayling unable to do more damage than he managed at Transport and particularly Justice, where his disastrous "reforms" are still being expensively undone.
Indeed - a perfect outcome imho
 

edwin_m

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The Government have now announced they believe there was Russian Interference in the 2019 election, citing the US-UK trade document leak. The report to be released does not cover the 2019 election, it was ready long before then, so the dead cat throwing appears to already have begun.

Getting their retaliation in first - a Russian intervention that helped Labour.
 

brad465

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Getting their retaliation in first - a Russian intervention that helped Labour.
It certainly didn't help the Tories, but I don't see how Labour gained anything from it. However I do remember Boris and co. said not long after Labour exposed the leak that we needed to find who was responsible for the leak ASAP, which if anything meant they indirectly admitted the contents of the leaked trade memo was legitimate.

If they did interfere in 2017, which is part of this report, it will be interesting to see who the Russians were trying to help; I would not be a surprised if their aim was a hung parliament like the result we got (so more help to Labour than Tory), to try and get May out in an attempt to get an administration that could "cosy up" to Russian demands more easily.
 

thejuggler

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Raab throws the second dead cat of the day onto the dining table and gets Sky news excited who then send a reporter to go and doorstep Corbyn.

The first dead cat this morning was some story about Parliament moving to York on a temporary basis.
 

JB_B

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Amazing that No 10's resident "superforecaster" failed to predict this outcome ( no doubt - after lashing out - he'll be back re-editing his blog to show how he knew it would happen all along.)
 

GRALISTAIR

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Sorry to be slightly off-topic , but I have been out of the UK for 20 years. What is the meaning origin of the phrase "throwing a dead cat"? Never heard it before until I read this thread.
 

brad465

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Sorry to be slightly off-topic , but I have been out of the UK for 20 years. What is the meaning origin of the phrase "throwing a dead cat"? Never heard it before until I read this thread.
In the world of news it usually means to put other news stories out in order to try and distract from something much more damaging.
 

John Hunt

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Sorry to be slightly off-topic , but I have been out of the UK for 20 years. What is the meaning origin of the phrase "throwing a dead cat"? Never heard it before until I read this thread.



"Let us suppose you are losing an argument. The facts are overwhelmingly against you, and the more people focus on the reality the worse it is for you and your case. Your best bet in these circumstances is to perform a manoeuvre that a great campaigner describes as 'throwing a dead cat on the table, mate' There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the table ― and I don’t mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point is that everyone will shout, “Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!” In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat ― the thing you want them to talk about ― and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.’" (Boris Johnson, 'This Cap on Bankers’ Bonuses is Like a Dead Cat – Pure Distraction', The Telegraph, March 3, 2013
 

RichT54

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I must admit I was confused at first because all I could think of was "dead cat bounce" which is a totally different expression related to financial matters and I couldn't see how it applied :oops:
 

Bevan Price

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I think it's funny and I'm pleased at what's happened.

I think it points to one of Boris Johnson's fatal weaknesses, which will do for him in due course - he doesn't like confrontation or telling people what they don't want to hear, so he packs his cabinet with sycophants and rewards people like Grayling for their loyalty rather than for their ability. During the period of Covid briefings it was noticeable that when bad news had to be delivered, someone else was usually "fingered" for the task, yet when "good" news came along it was always Boris giving it.

I can relate to Chris Grayling being a good MP because mine is Esther Mcvey and I've been surprised that instead of just a flurry she seems to remain active and involved in constituency issues. I don't like her politics one little bit, and I'm never going to vote for her, but I won't condemn her for the good work she appears to be doing as well.
To me, Boris sometimes comes across a bit like an overgrown schoolboy spoilt brat, who throws a tantrum when someone disagrees with him. Or alternately, a bit like a "mini-Trump", although the latter seems far more repulsive in his public image.
 

edwin_m

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To me, Boris sometimes comes across a bit like an overgrown schoolboy spoilt brat, who throws a tantrum when someone disagrees with him. Or alternately, a bit like a "mini-Trump", although the latter seems far more repulsive in his public image.
The impression I get is that he hasn't outgrown the school debating society, where people argue for or against a motion pretty much regardless of whether they believe in it. He seems to be motivated by beating other people, chooses the motion and which side to take purely on those grounds, and is then moreorless obliged to implement it even if it's disastrous as a policy.

Although he isn't quite as personally offensive as Trump I think he shares fundamentally the same character, and it's possibly even more dangerous as it's more effectively hidden. And while deep down amongst all the other stuff Trump might actually have a genuine belief in America, I can see nothing like that in Boris.
 

jfollows

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Boris is also a bully, because he's a coward. He demonstrates no "steel" in anything he says or does, and he goes out of his way to avoid interacting with anyone who disagrees with him.

It was interesting yesterday to see the thought raised that Boris might seek to overturn the Julian Lewis appointment, which he could possibly do in the House of Commons. It would involve a 90 minute debate, which would doubtless be embarrassing to him in the first place, and it would not be inconceivable that he'd lose the vote. I wondered if the thought had been put about by "sources close to the prime minister" just to gauge the reaction, which was probably hostile, so the idea will probably be abandoned. Even if it went ahead, and even if he won the vote, it would significantly increase the number of back-bench Conservative MPs who would cross to the other side of the road and walk on when they came across Boris dying in a ditch. He will need their support at some point in the future, and the bullying tactics of removing the party whip are going to backfire on him before long.

Boris has now achieved his goal of becoming prime minister, so his overriding goal now is to have been prime minister, in a way in which people look back to the "good old days" of his time in power. That's extremely unlikely to happen. Even good prime ministers generally get remembered for bad things.
 
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