The offence of misconduct in public office carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

[P.K.]

1 hour ago, woolley said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48554853

Foolish man.

It's annoying that the decision cannot be challenged until they deign to release the reasoning into the public domain.

Personally I thought it was doomed from the start as a political campaign doesn't look like a Public Office to me.

[woolley]

16 hours ago, P.K. said:

Personally I thought it was doomed from the start as a political campaign doesn't look like a Public Office to me.

Well, this, precisely. It was always a nonsense and easily defended had it come to trial. Seems like a case of someone carried away on a wave of hubris. I assume all of the people who egged him on will still be around when the legal bill pops through the door.

Perhaps a better case for misconduct in public office would have been Blair and the Iraq war.

[P.K.]

3 minutes ago, woolley said:

Well, this, precisely. It was always a nonsense and easily defended had it come to trial. Seems like a case of someone carried away on a wave of hubris. I assume all of the people who egged him on will still be around when the legal bill pops through the door.

Perhaps a better case for misconduct in public office would have been Blair and the Iraq war.

So the HoC didn't vote on it then! Well I never....

It makes me uneasy that our elected officials can lie through their teeth on an issue of such national importance with such far reaching effects and it takes some £300k of private funding to even try to make them take some responsibility for their actions.

Letting Johnson get away with his lies without an explanation as to why (yet) sends out all the wrong signals....

[woolley]

2 minutes ago, P.K. said:

So the HoC didn't vote on it then! Well I never....

It makes me uneasy that our elected officials can lie through their teeth on an issue of such national importance with such far reaching effects and it takes some £300k of private funding to even try to make them take some responsibility for their actions.

Letting Johnson get away with his lies without an explanation as to why (yet) sends out all the wrong signals....

You already said it was doomed because a political campaign doesn't look like public office. I agree, so why didn't this bloke and his cheerleaders see this obvious fact? Sheer hubris.

It reminds me of when I was a teenager and the union brothers would convene the local area meetings. We were pretty much all communists and the various "fathers of the chapel" would get everyone very excited about the prospects for the party. We were all of a mind in the hall and we were convinced that with just a little education everyone would see how principled was our cause and how capitalism had to be crushed for the good of mankind. "From each according to his means to each according to his needs." It was inevitable. How could we go wrong? We all know what happened. This kind of "groupthink" will affect any cohort that isolates itself from the mainstream. They convince themselves that their mindset is far more popular than is actually the case.

Also, the Johnson position was easily defendable in any case. He said we send this amount of money and he was careful to distinguish between the amount of money that was dead (not recoverable from the EU) and the amount that came back in EU spending (not in our control) and include both. You can bet that in extremis his lawyers would have fallen back on that and would have won. The man should be pleased at the outcome. The judge has saved him a far more expensive legal bill.

[Freggyragh]

The ‘rebate’ is a misleading term. It’s calculated from the previous year’s returns and applied before any money is sent. Let me explain that in simple words for you; the U.K. never gets the rebate back, because it is never sent in the first place. 

[Sheldon]

5 hours ago, Freggyragh said:

The ‘rebate’ is a misleading term. It’s calculated from the previous year’s returns and applied before any money is sent. Let me explain that in simple words for you; the U.K. never gets the rebate back, because it is never sent in the first place. 

I suppose it wouldn’t sound so grand if they called it a credit note. Or a loyalty discount. More like Cash Convertors. 

[P.K.]

58 minutes ago, Freggyragh said:

The ‘rebate’ is a misleading term. It’s calculated from the previous year’s returns and applied before any money is sent. Let me explain that in simple words for you; the U.K. never gets the rebate back, because it is never sent in the first place. 

Which is why the "£350m per week" is complete bollox.

Dear me. It comes to something when the Woolster is reduced to defending Farage, Gove and Johnson...

[woolley]

On 6/8/2019 at 9:59 AM, Freggyragh said:

The ‘rebate’ is a misleading term. It’s calculated from the previous year’s returns and applied before any money is sent. Let me explain that in simple words for you; the U.K. never gets the rebate back, because it is never sent in the first place. 

Thanks for making it simple for me, Freggy. I'll make it simple for you too. I didn't mention the rebate.

[woolley]

On 6/8/2019 at 11:00 AM, P.K. said:

 Dear me. It comes to something when the Woolster is reduced to defending Farage, Gove and Johnson...

Never did and never have done. I'm sure they can look after themselves. Just because they happen to pro-Brexit it doesn't mean I have to be a fan, surely? Are you a fan of Soubry, Starmer, Campbell, Heseltine, Clegg, Blair et al simply because they are pro-Remain?

[P.K.]

I'm a fan of Tarzan because his leaving the cabinet showed he was a man of principle.

I'm a fan of Blair because he defended his decisions before Joe Public unscripted on national tv. Not something done by a UK Prime Min before or since. More please.

If brexit has taught us one thing it's how absolutely useless and totally clueless a lot of our elected representatives are. If the current shower vying for the tory leadership are allegedly the best the nasty party have to offer it's little wonder the UK is the laughing stock of the civilised world......

[woolley]

11 hours ago, P.K. said:

I'm a fan of Tarzan because his leaving the cabinet showed he was a man of principle.

I'm a fan of Blair because he defended his decisions before Joe Public unscripted on national tv. Not something done by a UK Prime Min before or since. More please.

If brexit has taught us one thing it's how absolutely useless and totally clueless a lot of our elected representatives are. If the current shower vying for the tory leadership are allegedly the best the nasty party have to offer it's little wonder the UK is the laughing stock of the civilised world......

Hezza a man of principle? Jesus. That was all about Hezza's barely concealed ambition to become Tory leader and PM.

You can't possibly be a fan of Blair. Please say you are joking. Nobody is a fan of Blair.

I agree with your last paragraph to the extent of the paucity of leadership and total absence of statesmanship among the current crop, but I would extend that to politicians of all colours. Total dross, and it seems to get worse with each successive generation. I put it down to our education system with its politically correct discouragement of competition, "no winners, no losers - everyone has to be equal" ethos. How do you breed leaders out of that philosophy?

[Freggyragh]

I want the shysters who promised a good deal was inevitable knowing it had no basis in reality but would appeal to the hard of thinking locked up. I want the shysters who lied about how much Britain was paying to the EU locked up. I want the shysters who demand prison sentences for plebs who do the same drugs they do locked up. I want the shysters who engineered wars for profit locked up. I don’t care what party they represent. 

[woolley]

11 minutes ago, Freggyragh said:

I want the shysters who promised a good deal was inevitable knowing it had no basis in reality but would appeal to the hard of thinking locked up. I want the shysters who lied about how much Britain was paying to the EU locked up. I want the shysters who demand prison sentences for plebs who do the same drugs they do locked up. I want the shysters who engineered wars for profit locked up. I don’t care what party they represent. 

You want a lot. Maybe they should send you to Brussels.

[Andy Onchan]

20 hours ago, P.K. said:

I'm a fan of Tarzan because his leaving the cabinet showed he was a man of principle.

I'm a fan of Blair because he defended his decisions before Joe Public unscripted on national tv. Not something done by a UK Prime Min before or since. More please.

If brexit has taught us one thing it's how absolutely useless and totally clueless a lot of our elected representatives are. If the current shower vying for the tory leadership are allegedly the best the nasty party have to offer it's little wonder the UK is the laughing stock of the civilised world......

Tarzan was grandstanding and I'm not entirely sure that he resigned over a matter of principle , Thatcher made sure of that. He was left out in the cold by his cabinet colleagues. They all knew what he was up to. In the end they let him walk to the scaffold on his own.

[manxman1980]

9 hours ago, woolley said:

Hezza a man of principle? Jesus. That was all about Hezza's barely concealed ambition to become Tory leader and PM.

You can't possibly be a fan of Blair. Please say you are joking. Nobody is a fan of Blair.

I agree with your last paragraph to the extent of the paucity of leadership and total absence of statesmanship among the current crop, but I would extend that to politicians of all colours. Total dross, and it seems to get worse with each successive generation. I put it down to our education system with its politically correct discouragement of competition, "no winners, no losers - everyone has to be equal" ethos. How do you breed leaders out of that philosophy?

Before you blame "political correctness" and the education system perhaps take a look at the average age of our political "leaders".  

Then consider how many of them were privately educated. 

There are plenty of young leaders, but they are not attracted to politics in the traditional sense.  

The UK Party Political system is the issue along with the first past the post system.

Personally I would have no affiliation to a political party and would be a floating voter in the UK.  I see good and bad in most of the parties but I really cannot understand the Tory/Labour till I die brigade.