Wednesday 25th January 2023

[refitman]

Morning all.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Good morefternoon, anyone about today?

Seems like PMQs went about as well for Sunak as one might expect, given everything that is going on.

[refitman]

[gilsey]

'too big for him' was the phrase he actually used.
Someone on twitter was making a good point the other day, that we shouldn't mock Sunak's height, as it's typical of Indians and therefore borderline racist.

[gilsey]

The Daily Mail says Nadhim Zahawi’s family lived in breach of a planning condition on their country mansion for a decade. In their story, Andy Dolan, James Tozer and Richard Marsden report:

The embattled Conservative party chairman and wife Lana Saib bought the new-build property on the edge of the Cotswolds in 2011.

But when the house was erected on the site of a riding school and former farm seven years earlier, it was built with a ‘rural occupancy condition (ROC)’ which had been attached to the planning permission -meaning that only agricultural, forestry or equestrian workers could live there.

The Zahawis have now been granted immunity from enforcement action after exceeding a ten-year time limit on such breaches under planning legislation.

A ROC usually knocks at least 20% off the value of a house. What a deal Zahawi got there. All open and above board I'm sure.

[AnatolyKasparov]

'too big for him' was the phrase he actually used.
Someone on twitter was making a good point the other day, that we shouldn't mock Sunak's height, as it's typical of Indians and therefore borderline racist.

I think assuming the word "big" - one of the commonest in the English language, after all - is automatically referencing that, is a bit of a stretch tbf.

[gilsey]

Sparrow at the G:

Here is the full quote:

We all know why the prime minister was reluctant to ask his party chair questions about family finances and tax avoidance. But his failure to sack him when the whole country can see what’s going on shows how hopelessly weak he is – a prime minister overseeing chaos, overwhelmed at every turn.

He can’t say when ambulances will get to heart attack victims again. He can’t say when the prisons system will keep streets safe again. He can’t even deal with tax avoiders in his own cabinet. Is he starting to wonder if this job is just too big for him?

At one level this is just name calling (and Starmer must feel a bit queasy going this low). But Labour is fully entitled to point out that Sunak is an inexperienced PM leading an ungovernable party at the tail-end of what is arguably the least effective administration in the modern era. And “just too big for him” resonates because it’s reminder of Sunak’s diminutive status. As the photographs show, he is not a big guy.

Not such a stretch, maybe.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Still not convinced, at most I may accept that it is a convenient coincidence.

[frog222]

A ROC usually knocks at least 20% off the value of a house. What a deal Zahawi got there. All open and above board I'm sure. g /quote]

In 2013 Mr Zahawi apologised after making a 'mistake' in claiming almost £6,000 in expenses to heat the stables on his Warwickshire estate. It later emerged that he had used a company in the tax haven of Gibraltar to buy the home, but denied the arrangement was a means of reducing his tax burden.

[frog222]

" A source in the BBC newsroom said the mood was “mutinous”. On Monday evening Sharp hired the crisis communications firm to oversee his response. Andrew Garfield, its founder, has represented clients including Credit Suisse after it provided an emergency loan of tens of millions of pounds to the collapsed finance company Greensill.

There was further consternation yesterday as it emerged that Sharp was also involved in the job interview last year of Deborah Turness, the BBC’s head of news.

The revelation was made in the podcast The News Agents, where the former BBC presenter Jon Sopel said it raised questions about the chairman’s separation from newsgathering. “Someone who had given £400,000 to the Conservative Party was involved in the decision making on who the new head of news would be. At the time, I am told, there was enormous disquiet at the top of the BBC from people who had been around news, and editorial policy, for a very long time.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc- ... -vjf83h0bc

[frog222]

[refitman]

[frog222]

[AnatolyKasparov]

As already noted, CV's political transformation in the last few years is quite something.