For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By kanga
#1691155
johnm wrote:
Penny Mordaunt is the new defence secretary.


One can see the logic given her record but she’s pretty lightweight.


I'm not sure that enough has happened, or been seen to happen, on her watch (in Cabinet, at DfID), to indicate whether or not she's 'lightweight', whatever that means in this context. It is not usually a Department much in the public eye, unless something has gone 'horribly and publicly wrong'.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1691162
@kanga I suggest a bit of Googling as this isn’t a politics thread :oops:
By avtur3
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1691171
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:
kanga wrote:
Therefore, the relative triviality (disputes over actions and policies between Ministers, which happen all the time) of the topic of the leak is relatively unimportant. It is the forum from which the leak occurred which is very worrying, and to my knowledge unprecedented. For those who may be personally imperilled by leaks of sensitive information (as I have been, and had colleagues and comrades killed by such), I very much hope the culprit(s) is/are identified, dismissed and at least publicly shamed. I have no sympathy with the 'press freedom' argument in this context, but it is not the journalists' fault: it is absolutely the leakers'.


Well, your wish was her command.

Gavin Williamson unceremoniously sacked...


So at the National Security Council, it's the Defence Secretary, of all people, who can't keep his gob shut ... you couldn't make it up :?
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By PaulB
#1691175
So they say..... he’s strenuously denying that it was him.
By avtur3
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1691191
PaulB wrote:So they say..... he’s strenuously denying that it was him.


Raising the stakes Willamson has this evening "staked on his children's life" that he was not behind the leak. It'll be intersting to see how long this runs.
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By eltonioni
#1691195
Whoever it was, it's yet another Theresa May shambles that she, and she alone, is to blame for.

Between her and Gavin Williamson as PM, how many of us would choose her this morning? That's the absolute state of her.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1691196
It is possible that Williamson confided in a “special adviser” who leaked. It’s a relatively new role and one we could do without [/politics]
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By stevelup
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1691199
Huawei already have absolutely carp loads of infrastructure in place in UK broadband networks. I wonder why so much fuss about 5G when they have already infiltrated our day-to-day lives anyway?
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By Colonel Panic
#1691201
avtur3 wrote:Raising the stakes Willamson has this evening "staked on his children's life" that he was not behind the leak.

I thought bringing ones offspring in to politics had died out with John Gummer & his infamous beef burger.
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By kanga
#1691213
johnm wrote:@kanga I suggest a bit of Googling as this isn’t a politics thread :oops:


There's certainly some history of 'frivolity' in her pre-Parliamentary career, and her eraly days as a backbencher. However, I am not aware of anything in her time as a junior or Cabinet Minister which would indicate or refute that she is a 'lightweight', which I thought the appropriate metric. Happy to be enlightened, of course.
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By kanga
#1691216
johnm wrote:It is possible that Williamson confided in a “special adviser” who leaked. It’s a relatively new role and one we could do without [/politics]


Having a very long nerdy view, I agree that the role (which, as a taxpayer-paid position but a Ministerial appointment, goes back to the '70s at least) is a 'relatively new' one. I think it can be useful, as long as the Minister, the SAs, and the permanent (CS) officials in the Private Office fully understand and respect their roles and the proper limits thereof. It may be useful for a SA to remind a Minister with a brand new 'bright idea' to respond to a tabloid headline :roll: that the Minister will have to be ready to defend any consequent policy at Party Conferences, which PUS cannot and will not do; while PUS will properly remind Minister that such a proposal will need Treasury approval or Primary legislation or both, which SA cannot do. Recent mischief has arisen when a Minister's SA sees his or her role as including, possibly as a primary duty, the promotion of the Minister (in the media and the 'tea rooms') at the expense of other Ministers, especially with a Leadership contention in the clear offing; and selective 'off the record' leaks and equivalent hints or refusals to deny seem a common tool in that function, with little regard to 'good governance' let alone genuine concerns about security.
johnm liked this
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