Unfortunate juxtaposition of Home Secretary and slogan

This is the woman who took a secret trip to Israel, passing it off as a “holiday” without informing the Foreign Office, daughter of immigrants who hates immigrants, former consultant to a tobacco company, and, after being appointed Home Secretary, began working for Viasat in India as a strategic adviser on a salary of £5,000 a month for five hours’ work a month, without seeking prior approval from the government’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments – leading to accusations that she has broken the ministerial code for a second time.

So, maybe that juxtaposition isn’t as unfortunate as it first might seem!

Sky News headline brings back memories …

The headline:

“John Lewis culls top jobs with Waitrose management merger”

https://news.sky.com/story/john-lewis-culls-top-jobs-with-waitrose-management-merger-11824503

The memories:[

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2015/01/28/twissgate-londons-victoria-and-albert-museum-makes-claire-wright-famous-and-councillor-twiss-infamous/

and

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/12/19/cullgate-spreads-through-the-blogosphere/

and

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/11/28/councillor-twiss-gets-his-dictionary-in-a-twiss/

“Boris Johnson Has Handed £100,000 Of Taxpayers’ Cash To One Of His Main Donors”

“Boris Johnson’s government has awarded £100,000 of taxpayers’ money to a company that donated to his leadership campaign in order to help it “prepare for Brexit” — despite the firm having already declared itself “Brexit ready”.

Bristol port will receive the six-figure payment to “help their preparations for Brexit on 31 October”, the Department for Transport told BuzzFeed News. It is one of 16 ports across the UK that has received a share of a £10 million funding pot, and the only one in the west of England.

The decision to hand Bristol port a large sum of taxpayer cash will raise conflict-of-interest questions, because just four months ago the Bristol Port Company made a £25,000 donation directly to Johnson ahead of the Conservative party leadership contest.

Johnson then stoked controversy when he endorsed a report calling for a Singapore-style tax-free port at Bristol during his campaign.

The payment will also raise eyebrows because, despite Transport secretary Grant Shapps saying the money is about “ensuring they are ready for Brexit”, the Bristol Port Company has previously insisted it is already “ready” for the UK to come out of the EU. …”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/boris-johnson-bristol-port-cash

“Capitalism Isn’t Working And People Are ‘Pissed Off’, Says Tory Former Minister”

“Capitalism is in crisis and and the government must radically reform the UK because “people are pissed off”, a Tory MP has said.

John Penrose said it is “clearly true” that the system “isn’t working well enough” for ordinary people and has not been since the financial crash.

The former heritage minister said people feel crushed by large corporations and angry at the “illegitimate corrupt wealth” of mansion-owning foreign oligarchs who are “some of the nastiest people on the planet”.

Penrose, who is Boris Johnson’s anti-corruption champion, also hit out at rising inter-generational inequality, with the number of pension-age people growing while the tax-paying working population who “pay for the benefits we have promised ourselves” was “shrivelling”.

“Pretty soon everyone under 40 will feel like the system is a conspiracy and it is a conspiracy against them,” he said.

But Penrose, the MP for Weston, was told by one Tory activist at the Conservative Party fringe event, organised by The Enterprise Forum, that he “sounds like a Labour MP”.

With a snap election on the horizon, however, Penrose said his party must acknowledge the current market system had faults.

“We can’t just sit there saying, it’s all working perfectly because it manifestly for quite a lot of people for the last ten years hasn’t been working, and they are hacked off,” he said. “They are pissed off.”

He added: “It is clearly true, clearly true, that at the moment capitalism, corporatism, business, call it what you like, free markets, isn’t working well enough for enough people in our society.”

Penrose said the “danger is that the devil has all the best tunes” and voters could turn to Labour’s socialist agenda as an “answer”.

“Roughly once every ten years, once a generation, something goes wrong with British capitalism, with Britain’s economy, quite fundamentally, and we have to remodel ourselves,” he said. …”

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/capitalism-isnt-working-says-tory_uk_5d929cf8e4b0019647ad810e

“Living By The Sea Is Officially Good For Your Mental Health “

“Researchers from the University of Exeter used survey data from 25,963 respondents in their investigations into the wellbeing impacts of being by the coast.

After taking other related factors into account, they found that those who live less than a kilometre from the coast are 22% less likely to have symptoms of a mental health disorder than those who live 50km or more away.

Those from low income households less than a kilometre from the coast are around 40% less likely to have symptoms, compared to those earning the same amount living more than 50km away …”

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/heres-why-living-by-the-sea-really-is-better-for-your-mental-health_uk_5d930c24e4b0ac3cddae0a7a?guccounter=1

Another “Big 4” external auditor under investigation

EY = formerly known as Earnst Young. Who CAN you trust to give a true picture of an organisation’s finances these days?

“Britain’s accounting watchdog has begun an investigation into EY’s audit of Thomas Cook’s accounts, just over a week after the world’s oldest travel firm collapsed.

The Financial Reporting Council said its enforcement division was investigating EY’s audit of the financial statements of Thomas Cook for the year to 30 September 2018.

“The FRC will keep under close review both the scope of this investigation and the question of whether to open any other investigation in relation to Thomas Cook, liaising with other relevant regulators to the fullest extent permissible,” it said.

EY took over from PwC as Thomas Cook’s auditors in 2017. Both are among the UK’s big four accountancy firms. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/01/thomas-cook-auditors-frc-ey-collapse?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other