“Boris Johnson was pictured having his derrière tweaked in the street by his new 30-year-old love interest, just months after announcing his divorce. …”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-bum-pinched-street-13849069
“Watch the moment David Cameron strolls past minister at China state banquet and playfully slaps him on the bottom. …”
“In normal times, a PM’s ‘late’ decision to adopt a backbench amendment can swing the ten or so rebels needed to win a vote. However, the new normal on Brexit is that battle-hardened backbenchers are less likely than ever to cave to such tactics. The string of ‘concessions’ announced by Brexit secretary Steve Barclay and pushed by No10 yesterday met with a collective shrug at best and ridicule at worst.
The Hugo Swire amendment, to give MPs a final say on the ‘backstop’ or the transition period, was burned off by Brexiteer Steve Baker as “flimsy rubbish which will only persuade those who have decided to be persuaded”.
The DUP’s Nigel Dodds said the plan – which No.10 insiders admit would involve the UK struggling to meet its international obligations – was ‘meaningless and cosmetic’ “
Source: The Waugh Zone, Huffington Post
Good to see Swire keeping his eye on the important balls:
https://m.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=251482645358785&story_fbid=513581455815568
Swire is Deputy Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council.
Sounds good in every sense, doesn’t it?
He reveals he paid £2,083 every month until further notice for 10 hrs per month. £208 per hour – not half bad!
So what is this organisation? It describes itself as:
“CWEIC is responsible for organising the Commonwealth Business Forum alongside the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and Commonwealth Trade Ministers Meeting on alternative years.
Our day to day activity focuses primarily upon serving the interests of our members. We run a number of different scale and format events each year, providing Members with networking opportunities, access to leading Commonwealth figures from the worlds of government and business, and the chance to shape the Commonwealth’s business policies and agenda. …”
http://www.cweic.org/about/
Oh Lord, not another Business Forum! It is actually a business, describing itself as:
“Management consultancy activities other than financial management”
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09132366/officers
And, as Owl has reported, somewhat controversial:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/03/31/hugo-swire-deputy-chairman-of-the-commonwealth-enterprise-and-investment-council-questions-asked/
Good fun going to
http://www.sarawakreport.org
and inputting Swire – lots of interesting stuff, particularly this one:
And it plans to take advantage of Brexit as you would expect:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-4307630/Empire-2-0-Commonwealth-eyes-post-Brexit-trade-boost.html
It partners with a controversial American company to make money from the Commonwealth:
https://english.alwatanvoice.com/news/2016/04/26/908483.html
Tangled webs, tangled webs …
No, it’s not a recipe.
Swire has sent out a puff job about what he has “achieved” for East Devon over the last year, despite barely ever being here and getting himself knee-deep in Brexit machinations, about which we still have no idea who he supports and exactly what he supports.
His only interest currently seems to be helping to prop up the DUP in Ireland and keeping an eye out for which May successor might get him off the back benches.
Oh, and his “work” with the Conservative Middle East Council and being Deputy Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council ( see next post for more on that) and being provider of strategic investment advice for the Latin American market (Register of Interests). Not forgetting that little company he co-owns with controversial Lord Barker (Eaglesham Investments).
Owl will not be linking to the puff job.
Take, say, Hugo Swire. He has not said how he would vote. Say Mrs May wins – he can say he voted for her but could have voted against her as the ballot is secret.
Or, if she loses he can say he voted against her to be in with a chance with a new Leader.
Although Parish says he voted for her, he can’t prove that either – he might have secretly voted against her!
Doesn’t matter what those declared and undeclared voters voted for – it can never be proved.
Transparent? Of course not!
He SO needs that Foreign Office job to take him off the back bench!
“… A spokesman for Sir Hugo said he would not be making any comment until after tonight’s secret ballot.”
https://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/hugo-swire-leadership-vote-theresa-may-1-5815966
Swire and May… Swire and Rudd … Swire and … just about anyone who might get him out of the hell of being a backbench MP!
“… What the government wants
A crucial insight into Downing Street’s thinking lies in an amendment put forward to the “meaningful vote” by the Tory MP Sir Hugo Swire. The government’s fingerprints were all over it.
Beyond parliament directing the government on whether to seek an extension of the transition period to avoid the backstop, Swire more significantly proposed to place “a duty” on the government to agree a future relationship, or alternative arrangements, within one year of the Northern Ireland backstop coming into force.
It was essentially an attempt to give parliament a putative date by which the government would make all “best endeavours” to get out of the backstop, or have a very good reason for failing to do so.
The withdrawal agreement already says that the EU will make those “best endeavours” to have a free trade deal in place by 2020 – the end of the 21-month transition period. The government may well seek for the reiteration of that commitment, plus an additional statement of the EU’s intention to get out of the backstop by 2021. …”
As a commentator points out – an article from the Daily Telegraph of 5 December 2018:
“US congressional investigators have launched an inquiry into possible links between British-based companies owned by Russian oligarchs and their relationship with Russia’s intelligence agencies.
The move follows increasing concerns by U.S. congressmen over the extent of Russian meddling in both the U.S. and Europe, with a number of oligarchs with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin forming the main focus of the inquiry.
Among the UK-based companies that have aroused the interest of congressional investigators is EN+, the energy company owned by Oleg Deripaska and chaired by Tory peer Lord Barker of Battle.
Mr Deripaska, a close ally of Mr Putin, is already under investigation from congressional committees over allegations, which the oligarch denies, that he was involved in efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential elections.
Recent documents released by the FBI revealed Mr Deripaska loaned $10 million to Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, who has been charged with fraud and money-laundering. Mr Deripaska is one of several Russian oligarchs who were hit with U.S. sanctions in April.
Now US investigators say they are interested in apparent links between British-based companies owned by Russian oligarchs and Russian intelligence agencies.
Their interest in EN+ comes after FBI officers identified Evgeny Fokin, who is the company’s Director of International Cooperation, as formerly being the SVR’s declared liaison officer with U.S. intelligence agencies in Washington DC in the mid-1990s.
Apart from being employed by EN+, Mr Fokin, who is said to be a close ally of Mr Deripaska, has previously been employed by Basic Element, another company owned by Mr Deripaska.
“There is particular concern in Congress about the links between Russian businesses owned by oligarchs and the Russian intelligence agencies,” a U.S. official told the Daily Telegraph.
“There is concern about the large numbers of former Russian intelligence officers who now hold senior positions in major Russian businesses.
“There are growing suspicions in Congress that the distinction between the Russian state and businesses owned by Putin’s supporters may be on paper only.”
Lord Barker, a former energy minister under David Cameron, provoked criticism from MPs earlier this year after he helped EN+ raise £1 billion on the London Stock Exchange, money that was then used to pay off Russian banks subject to U.S. sanctions.
The claim by FBI officials that Mr Fokin is a former SVR officer would make him the third former Russian intelligence officer to have been identified as working for Mr Deripaska’s business interests.
Valery Pechenkin, another former SVR officer, has been appointed to run Basic Element, while Viktor Boyarkin, a former officer with the same Russian GRU military unit accused of carrying out the Salisbury nerve agent attack in March, has previously worked for Mr Deripaska’s Rusal aluminium conglomerate.
A spokesman for Mr Fokin denied that he had been a member of the SVR, and said Mr Fokin had not been contacted by anyone connected with the U.S. congressional investigation.
A person familiar with the situation told The Telegraph: “Mr Fokin resigned from the Russian Diplomatic Service over twenty years ago to pursue a career in the private sector. He has been with En+ since 2012.”
Both US congressional intelligence committees in the Senate and the House of Representatives have had long-running investigations into every aspect of alleged Russian interference in U.S. elections as well as other organisations.
In October Senator Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, announced his investigation was looking a new lines of inquiry. Following the outcome of the mid-term elections in November, the Democrat-led House intelligence committee has intensified its inquiry into Russian meddling, with U.S. officials confirming that Mr Deripaska, as well as other oligarchs, remain a particular focus of both investigations.
Mr Deripaska has recently been visiting London to give evidence in a court case involving a £74 million property dispute with former Russian minister Vladimir Chernukhin.”
Daily Express article today – heck that fence must be pretty uncomfortable!
“Under the terms of the deal Mrs May agreed with the EU that the UK will automatically fall into a ‘backstop’ EU customs union should the Government fail to agree a new trading relationship with Brussels during the transition period. The transition period is currently set at 21 months, though Mrs May has hinted it could be extended. Should the UK enter a customs union with Brussels it would struggle to sign comprehensive trade deals with third parties, and will still have to obey a significant proportion of EU legislation.
Tory loyalists Sir Hugo Swire and Richard Graham have tabled the amendment, which would give MPs a vote on whether the UK joins the customs union backstop or extends the transition period if a new trading relationship with the EU can’t be agreed.
It also requires the Government to push for “further assurances from the EU that the backstop would only be a temporary arrangement”.
Should the UK enter a customs union the amendment requires the Government to make plans to exit within a year.
Nikki da Costa, formerly the Prime Minister’s director of legislative affairs, suggested Ministers could be behind the move.
He told the Daily Mail: “I know a Government amendment when I see one”.
Multiple sightings of our esteemed MP lurking in the background – almost seeming to try to duck out of shot – of early TV news items featuring Amber Rudd spouting today’s riff on Brexit.
Swire has already been described as “a state sanctioned dissident” and Rudd is known to be quite prepared to do May’s dirty work:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/12/07/swire-state-sanctioned-dissident/
So, are they dirty working today WITH May or AGAINST her?
Be careful Mrs May – keeping your friends close but your enemies even closer has its failings. And Owl thinks he has never forgiven you for ousting him from his “job” at the Foreign Office, cosying up to the sheiks of the Saudi Arabian peninsula and his favourite islands, The Maldives. Which he still does but in the very much less prestigious ‘job” of Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council.
Owl loves the description of Swire!
“The plain fact is that the Brexiteers and the DUP are unbiddable, unshakeable and unpersuadeable. The usual tricks of last minute concessions just aren’t working. Last night was a case in point, as the new amendment to give Stormont and MPs a say over the customs ‘backstop’ was tabled by state-sanctioned dissidents Hugo Swire, Richard Graham and Bob Neill. …”
Source: WUgh Zone, Huffington Post
A comment on the original post:
“Let’s make sure that everyone is clear what this was all about and why Swire’s & Parish’s votes were fundamentally important.
The issues that these votes related to were as follows:
1. Should the government keep the Attorney General’s legal advice secret so that MPs debate and vote about Brexit could not be an informed vote, but instead would be based on a political interpretation of this legal advice by the Government, in other words an interpretation by government politicians with all the bias towards the outcome they want to see rather than an independent assessment? [Swire and Parish voted to keep the advice secret]
2. Should the Government be allowed to ignore a decision by Parliament that the legal advice should be published in full? In other words, is Government the servant of our MPs or the other way around? Remember, that the only group able to hold the Government to account between general elections is Parliament i.e. MPs – and if Government doesn’t need to be accountable to them, then they are effectively an absolute autocracy, without needing to be accountable to anyone. Scared yet? [Yes, said Swire and Parish – it should ignore the vote]
3. Should the Government – and specifically Mrs May – be allowed to control the Brexit debate in order to give MPs only two choices – a very bad one or an even worse one, and not allow them to debate or vote on the other legally available choices? And to do this to the detriment not only of Parliament but also the people of the UK who have to live with the consequences for at a minimum several decades? [Yes, they voted: only Mrs May and her cabinet of cronies should be allowed to decide what happens next]
In other words, these three votes were not about some minor technicality relating to publication of a specific letter from the Attorney General to the Prime Minister – instead they were about THE FUNDAMENTAL FOUNDATIONS OF DEMOCRACY – that the Government should be able to be held accountable by MPs, and that in the end it is our MPs who take the decisions on behalf of us. [Remember “sovereignty”!]
And that is why both Neil Parish and Hugo Swire’s votes against these motions are so important and so wrong. By now we are all pretty used to Swire and Parish putting Party before People – just look at the awful laws they have voted for which have it the poorest and most vulnerable in our society the hardest. Is it any wonder that the Conservative Party is called “The Nasty Party” by a large proportion of the population?
But these votes were different – they were about putting Party before Democracy itself. Swire and Parish effectively voted for the Government to be unaccountable, and for an absolute autocracy where the Government can do absolutely what they like, regardless of whether MPs agree with it or not. These votes were simply anti-democracy. PERIOD.
Remember, power corrupts – absolute power corrupts absolutely.
So I ask you – yes you, the person reading this comment – do you really want your MP to be voting to give Government ministers absolute power, because that is the first step towards a tyrannical government? Or do you think that above all else, your MP should be voting to preserve democracy? In other words, which is more important to you in the long run – today’s vote or having a genuine democracy? I certainly know my own priority on this.”
Swire and Parish:
Voted that May was NOT in contempt of Parliament to refuse to publish full Brexit legal advice.
Voted AGAINST allowing full publication instead referring the matter to a committee.
And voted AGAINST allowing Parliament a say if May’s deal falls through.
Moral of this story: use your vote wisely next time these men stand for Parliament.
“City lawyers told to target emerging economies in developing countries post Brexit”
City lawyers should sell their services to emerging economic powers such as Nigeria and Kazakhstan to generate “vital” earnings for the UK after Brexit, the Justice Secretary has told legal chiefs. …”
What does this have to do with East Devon? Nothing.
What does it have to do with our MP, Hugo Swire? Everything.
The (currently non-trading) company he took such a long while to put on his Register of Interests (co-director, ex-Energy Minister and spokesperson for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska) has been set up to get involved with …..
drumroll ….. emerging economies!
Rousing speech to supporters last night:
http:/https://www.facebook.com/claire.l.wright.7/videos/10155922394621659/
Parish unhappy with Brexit deal and will vote it, and May, down according to Sunday Telegraph today:
https://www.neilparish.co.uk/news/my-position-brexit-withdrawal-agreement
Swire firmly on his usual fence – no update since this post on his website:
https://www.hugoswire.org.uk/news/my-position-proposed-brexit-withdrawal-agreement
presumably waiting to see which of his Eton pals is going to offer him a nice job. Though perhaps not the Middle East (his usual choice).
Ambassador to the Maldives, perhaps?
Picture credit: Devonlive
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/minister-visits-exeter-airport-2227056
Reminds Owl of this unfortunate one for Rees-Mogg:
East Devon Watch 