[Youngian]

Britain’s top diplomat is making a better fist than Keir at wooing Reform voters. The taxi driver is far from reliable and appears the original 'taxigate' atercation in which Lammy told the taxi driver to shove his fare maybe more than justified.

French police have charged a taxi driver with stealing luggage and cash from UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his wife Nicola Green.

The driver allegedly sped off with the couple's luggage after a row over a fare for the 360-mile journey from Forli, in Italy, to the French ski resort of Flaine, in Haute-Savoie.

The driver insisted he was owed 700 euros (£590) in cash for part of the journey not covered by an upfront payment to a booking service.

But the Foreign Office said in a statement the fare had been paid in full before they set off on their private holiday. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9ygl5g5n9o

[Boiler]

No matter - here's another stick to beat the former King's School pupil with.

[Killer Whale]

Subtext: It's OK to be mildly racist, because this black fella was.

[NevTheSweeper]

Lammy must resign as foreign secretary, not for this, but for his silence over the war in Gaza.

[Abernathy]

Yeah, silence. Not a cheep.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ ... march-2025

For weeks now, supplies of basic goods and electricity have been blocked, leaving over half a million civilians once again cut off from clean drinking water and sparking a 200% surge in the price of some basic foodstuffs – a boon to those criminals who use violence to control supplies.

As I told the House on Monday, this is appalling and unacceptable.

Deafening, that silence.

Give it up, Nev, you're just making yourself ridiculous.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

'making'?

[Youngian]

The Lidls Dave Spart

Lammy must resign as foreign secretary, not for this, but for his silence over the war in Gaza.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

[insert name of cabinet member] must resign because [insert spurious reason]!!!

That's how it goes, isn't it, Trig?

[RedSparrows]

Don't forget:

'I'd probs vote Reform'
'Reforn are a bit fascist yeah'

[kreuzberger]

Lammy is holding the government line, nothing more, nothing less.

The problem is that HMG is beginning to look out of step with the mood music. Even Italy (who hate Muslims even more than they hate Jews), have come out publicly to say that enough is enough. Basta!

Starmer's government won't want to find itself on the wrong side of history, but that is the current trajectory. Farage's mob still won't shag them, mind.

[The Weeping Angel]

https://www.thetimes.com/article/62887b ... 9cf1000d57

Pity a man born out of his time. For generations, squaring up to an unruly Frenchman was a core pillar of the job for any British foreign secretary. Today David Lammy finds himself in a terrible bother. Here’s how it unfolded. Fresh from accompanying the King and Queen on a state visit to Italy last month, Lammy and his wife, Nicola Green, returned to their family holiday in Flaine, a French ski resort that is, I learn, thanks to a pleasingly snobby description in the Mail, “popular with Brits whose budgets don’t extend to more upmarket destinations across the Swiss border”.

To get them there, a Foreign Office staffer paid for a taxi costing just over £700, on the understanding that Lammy would refund the government. On arrival, at about 3am, the taxi driver, Nasim Mimun, seems to have decided that the journey now cost an extra £588, which he demanded in cash. Shockingly, a dispute ensued.

Lammy, says Mimun, was acting like a “thug”, which doesn’t seem to be true but also — to be fair — is exactly how I would act if somebody tried to take £588 from me for no discernible reason. As the argument developed, Green told the police, the taxi driver showed her a long kitchen knife he kept in his glovebox. Which seems like the type of thing an actual thug would do, but whatever.

Alarmed, the couple got out of the car, at which point Mimun sped off into the night. He had no idea the couple’s luggage was still in his boot, he claims. When said luggage was eventually returned, the extra money was missing from Green’s suitcase. Mimun has now been fired from his job, and will appear in court in November.

This story, you don’t need me to tell you, raises a lot of questions. Chief among them: why on earth was the foreign secretary of Great Britain and Northern Ireland being driven through the Alps by a madman in a taxi?

This is, quite obviously, a security risk: to Lammy, but also to the country. In the same week a man was arrested for setting fire to houses linked to Keir Starmer. We know that hostile powers are engaging in acts of sabotage across Europe. We know that there are those who would benefit from kidnapping Lammy (who is, crucially, also the minister responsible for MI6) or threatening him. The Foreign Office knows this better than anyone. So why were Lammy and his wife in that taxi?

The answer is this: to save the British state a few hundred pounds in an inglorious act of bean-counting. The foreign secretary receives security protection only when in the UK or abroad on official business. On holiday he’s on his own. This is, of course, sensible, because Russian agents and Islamist terrorists are very respectful of annual leave. (Former prime ministers get permanent security, so don’t worry: all Liz Truss’s jollies to embarrass us in front of the Americans are covered.)

In fact, no actual British taxpayer money was saved in this process. It turns out the Italian government actually offered to drive Lammy. This offer came up against the Foreign Office computer, which promptly said no. By all accounts, the Italians, who, and I hate to conform to national stereotypes here, are rather less wedded to pointless rule-following than we Brits, were utterly bemused by the whole thing.

And so Lammy was shoved in a taxi and sent merrily on his way with a stranger whose grip on reality — based on what I’ve read of his public statements — seems rather fruity to say the least. Perhaps we should go the whole hog and make the foreign secretary hitchhike next time.

Such bean-counting, such bloody-minded intransigence, is built deep into the Whitehall machine. In this case it created an obvious security risk. But it affects the smooth running of government constantly. Ministers must fight to stay in a convenient hotel if it falls £5 over an automatically set budget. They must share government cars, with those who lose out finding themselves late to official engagements, waiting for an Uber. Senior business leaders visiting government departments are not guaranteed coffee and pastries unless special arrangements are made and approved by layers of officials.

Let me ask you: do you think Marco Rubio has this problem? Do you think Emmanuel Macron is staying at a ring-road hotel in Essex when he visits London? Do you think Anthony Albanese is being driven round Europe in taxis? The answer is, categorically, no. I know this because I’ve spoken to diplomats from numerous G20 countries, and they all think we’re mad.

There is a particular love of parsimony, of the hair shirt, that is specific to the British character. We are horrified by the idea that our politicians might have anything that remotely resembles a luxury, and so we make their lives a little harder in a thousand little ways, and hang the consequences.

Politicians do it too, in opposition: whingeing about the cost of the PM’s air travel (do they want him on a rail replacement bus?) or diplomatic dinners (do they think British soft power would benefit if foreign ambassadors were taken to a Toby Carvery?). They pay the price when they get into government.

In The English Constitution, Walter Bagehot argues that a constitution should have two parts: those which “excite and preserve the reverence of the population — the dignified parts” and “the efficient parts — those by which it, in fact, works and rules”. We can apply similar tests here to the way we conduct the business of our most senior diplomat: tests of dignity and efficiency.

Does David Lammy sitting in a taxi to save a few hundred quid make the government more efficient? No. Does his getting into a set-to with a strange foreign driver “excite and preserve the reverence of the population”? No, quite obviously, it does not.

[Youngian]

I recall a security detail followed Margaret Beckett's caravan on her holidays. That's how decadent our political class are.
Strange the public are sanctimonious about those in public service receiving any kind of reward but doff their caps to the crown and billionaires however unjustifibly lavish their lifestyles are.

[mattomac]

https://www.thetimes.com/article/62887b ... 9cf1000d57

Pity a man born out of his time. For generations, squaring up to an unruly Frenchman was a core pillar of the job for any British foreign secretary. Today David Lammy finds himself in a terrible bother. Here’s how it unfolded. Fresh from accompanying the King and Queen on a state visit to Italy last month, Lammy and his wife, Nicola Green, returned to their family holiday in Flaine, a French ski resort that is, I learn, thanks to a pleasingly snobby description in the Mail, “popular with Brits whose budgets don’t extend to more upmarket destinations across the Swiss border”.

To get them there, a Foreign Office staffer paid for a taxi costing just over £700, on the understanding that Lammy would refund the government. On arrival, at about 3am, the taxi driver, Nasim Mimun, seems to have decided that the journey now cost an extra £588, which he demanded in cash. Shockingly, a dispute ensued.

Lammy, says Mimun, was acting like a “thug”, which doesn’t seem to be true but also — to be fair — is exactly how I would act if somebody tried to take £588 from me for no discernible reason. As the argument developed, Green told the police, the taxi driver showed her a long kitchen knife he kept in his glovebox. Which seems like the type of thing an actual thug would do, but whatever.

Alarmed, the couple got out of the car, at which point Mimun sped off into the night. He had no idea the couple’s luggage was still in his boot, he claims. When said luggage was eventually returned, the extra money was missing from Green’s suitcase. Mimun has now been fired from his job, and will appear in court in November.

This story, you don’t need me to tell you, raises a lot of questions. Chief among them: why on earth was the foreign secretary of Great Britain and Northern Ireland being driven through the Alps by a madman in a taxi?

This is, quite obviously, a security risk: to Lammy, but also to the country. In the same week a man was arrested for setting fire to houses linked to Keir Starmer. We know that hostile powers are engaging in acts of sabotage across Europe. We know that there are those who would benefit from kidnapping Lammy (who is, crucially, also the minister responsible for MI6) or threatening him. The Foreign Office knows this better than anyone. So why were Lammy and his wife in that taxi?

The answer is this: to save the British state a few hundred pounds in an inglorious act of bean-counting. The foreign secretary receives security protection only when in the UK or abroad on official business. On holiday he’s on his own. This is, of course, sensible, because Russian agents and Islamist terrorists are very respectful of annual leave. (Former prime ministers get permanent security, so don’t worry: all Liz Truss’s jollies to embarrass us in front of the Americans are covered.)

In fact, no actual British taxpayer money was saved in this process. It turns out the Italian government actually offered to drive Lammy. This offer came up against the Foreign Office computer, which promptly said no. By all accounts, the Italians, who, and I hate to conform to national stereotypes here, are rather less wedded to pointless rule-following than we Brits, were utterly bemused by the whole thing.

And so Lammy was shoved in a taxi and sent merrily on his way with a stranger whose grip on reality — based on what I’ve read of his public statements — seems rather fruity to say the least. Perhaps we should go the whole hog and make the foreign secretary hitchhike next time.

Such bean-counting, such bloody-minded intransigence, is built deep into the Whitehall machine. In this case it created an obvious security risk. But it affects the smooth running of government constantly. Ministers must fight to stay in a convenient hotel if it falls £5 over an automatically set budget. They must share government cars, with those who lose out finding themselves late to official engagements, waiting for an Uber. Senior business leaders visiting government departments are not guaranteed coffee and pastries unless special arrangements are made and approved by layers of officials.

Let me ask you: do you think Marco Rubio has this problem? Do you think Emmanuel Macron is staying at a ring-road hotel in Essex when he visits London? Do you think Anthony Albanese is being driven round Europe in taxis? The answer is, categorically, no. I know this because I’ve spoken to diplomats from numerous G20 countries, and they all think we’re mad.

There is a particular love of parsimony, of the hair shirt, that is specific to the British character. We are horrified by the idea that our politicians might have anything that remotely resembles a luxury, and so we make their lives a little harder in a thousand little ways, and hang the consequences.

Politicians do it too, in opposition: whingeing about the cost of the PM’s air travel (do they want him on a rail replacement bus?) or diplomatic dinners (do they think British soft power would benefit if foreign ambassadors were taken to a Toby Carvery?). They pay the price when they get into government.

In The English Constitution, Walter Bagehot argues that a constitution should have two parts: those which “excite and preserve the reverence of the population — the dignified parts” and “the efficient parts — those by which it, in fact, works and rules”. We can apply similar tests here to the way we conduct the business of our most senior diplomat: tests of dignity and efficiency.

Does David Lammy sitting in a taxi to save a few hundred quid make the government more efficient? No. Does his getting into a set-to with a strange foreign driver “excite and preserve the reverence of the population”? No, quite obviously, it does not.

The final question should be does anyone care having been 3 days in the news? No