Apparently some brains have gone missing…Mixed up brains among mortuary failings. No need to go to the mortuary though to find mixed-up brains…just head off to the unelected Lord Adonis’ Twitter feed and you’ll find plenty of brainless witterings there.
Adonis was very quick to try and make something out of the pro-EU, anti-Brexit Sunday Mail’s massive frontpage splash….‘Top Tories in Chinese ‘Cash for Brexit’ furore’ and the BBC’s ‘what the newspapers say’ gave it top billing..though even the BBC must think the story is dubious as they haven’t run with it yet themselves….Adonis isn’t quite so bothered with facts…he’s running with it…
This is based upon a C4 Dispatches’ story…..one has to think, judging by the fact that this is a complete set up, and one that failed, that this was a deliberate attempt to engineer a scenario that made Brexit look like a get-rich scheme for Tory grandees in order to smear and discredit ‘Brexit’ as a concept….just why did C4 target Tories and why did they frame it around Brexit? Look at how C4 trailed it…
Dispatches goes undercover to investigate how former cabinet ministers are offering themselves to private companies as Brexit advisers
Rather dramatic and sensationalist….and, despite the lurid headline from the Sunday Mail, if you read their story you’ll realise this was a complete farce….none of the politicians did anything illegal or corrupt…and in fact they all reported the approach to the authorities to investigate. So where’s the story other than a highly misleading headline?
Apparently….The show’s producers wanted their exposé to show “how former Cabinet Ministers are offering themselves to private companies as Brexit advisers”.
Well no…they weren’t ‘offering themselves’…they were invited by C4 to work as advisors…which, as said, is not illegal at all…and lots of people provide guidance and advice on how legislation and policy change will effect issues…such as Dods Group...which the unelected Adonis is a director of….
Our conferences are aimed at providing delegates with an understanding of the practical implications of legislative changes and policy interventions.
Not only that but they seek to influence the political agenda not just advise on it…
If you want to set the agenda during the Party Conference season, work with us. We provide more fringe events than any other organisation, with high customer satisfaction year on year.
And of course they offer advice on Brexit.…lol….
The European Union and Public affairs Directory (EPAD) 2018 (published in February 2018) is EU’s most comprehensive contact directory, detailing thousands of key policy makers, including the EU Institutions Chief Negotiators and points of contact on Brexit and European public affairs professionals.
So perhaps Adonis could explain why it is corrupt and immoral for Tories to allegedly advise companies about Brexit but it is perfectly fine for him to do so?
It is not illegal for MPs to work as advisors ...
The lobbying rules do not prevent a Member holding a paid outside interest as a director, consultant, or adviser, or in any other capacity, whether or not such interests are related to membership of the House.
The unelected Lord Adonis goes on to dig a hole for himself…talking of fat-cats and rogues….well he should know perhaps….
So the unelected Adonis is up in arms about politicians advising outside companies [even if they have no connection to them] and wants May to crack down on fat-cats and rogues…hmmmm…..would that include someone who was transport secretary under Labour and created HS2, who then became a director of HS2 Ltd….a position he held until early 2017 even though he’d been made interim Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission in 2015…obviously dealing with the likes of HS2? HS2 Ltd is funded by government grants and is a ‘public body’ but clearly there must have been conflicts of interest as Adonis resigned hs directorsip when made substantive Chair of the NIC in 2017…why not two years before? Someone whose pet creation is HS2, and who is on the board of the company set up to promote and develop it perhaps shouldn’t have been the one making the big political decisions on whether it should go through or not….
Then again he doesn’t seem too bothered about ethical considerations judging by his undemocratic reaction to Brexit….and of course he only stepped down from the NIC Chair to ‘relentlessly oppose Brexit’.
The BBC interviewed him along with JRM today….well, hardly an interview, the dead-eyed Adonis was pretty much allowed to dominate and make all sorts of accustaions, JRM was put in the position of having to defend himself. Sarah Smith, doing the interviewing, didn’t give Adonis a hard time at all despite his numerous and very vocal rages against Brexit over the last few weeks telling everyone who would listen that he was out to sabotage it and would work relentlessly to stop it. Smith did ask about some of his comments but allowed him to bat them away and go on to make claims that had little basis in truth. Here’s The Express on his interview with LBC’s Iain Dale…..much more combative….
The former Labour minister was appearing on LBC when host Iain Dale asked if his entire strategy was to sabotage Brexit, with Lord Adonis gladly admitting that it was.
Dale interrupted, saying: “Just be honest, your entire strategy is basically to sabotage Brexit that’s it, isn’t it?”
Lord Adonis responded: “Yes!”
Lord Adonis said he wanted to sabotage Brexit in a democratic way.
He said: “Yes, I absolutely want to sabotage Brexit but I do not want to do so in an undemocratic way.
Lord Adonis stepped down from his government-appointed role as chair of the National Infrastructure Commission to “oppose relentlessly” the Brexit vote.
Adonis made the claim that the Tory 2015 election manifesto said we would stay in the single market….Adonis implying that this meant after any referendum decision to leave. The manifesto of course said no such thing but Smith didn’t pick him up on that. All the references to the single market were made with the idea that we would still be in the EU.
Adonis of course still peddles the old lie about no voter knowing what they were voting for…that they didn’t vote to leave the single market nor the customs union….but of course they did know, they were told enough times, and they voted to ‘leave the EU’ which means all of its rules, regulations and structures.
None of the Tories in the C4 entrapment farce offered political access for cash…that would be illegal…however the unelected Adonis is a director of Dods Group which proudly tells us…
Dods People is a comprehensive online service offering you unparalleled access to political representatives and public affairs professionals across the UK and European Union.
We can enable you to email members of a Select Committee, invite MEPs to an event and research key political representatives across all parliaments and assemblies. Plus, Dods clients can now email or phone MPs and peers with just one click on their smartphone thanks to the Dods People app.
The app, available on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play, provides in-depth biographical profiles for all UK MPs and peers. We will soon be launching an edition that covers all MEPs across Europe.
Plenty of questions about Adonis that could be asked…and yet he got off scot-free in the BBC ‘interview’….maybe they should contact Dods and get some of that ‘unparalleled access’ to him and his fellow anti-Brexit lordships.
