Mailwatch(ed) Forum

I see we've moved from "the PM definitely lied to Parliament" to "there's definitely a cover up". There is scrutiny. The Select Committee are looking at it, and Starmer's had UQs and the normal PMQs. Note the silly Boris Johnson comparison too.

On the plus side, Ed's not going down well BTL. Anybody on Bluesky fancy reminding Ed of the time the Lib Dems (whipped) abstained on an investigation into Jeremy Hunt over the BSkyB takeover?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... eremy-hunt

Deservedly getting a kicking over Horizon, I see.

I know they were the smaller party in the coalition. but that abstention on investigating Hunt (a mere Ministerial Code investigation, I think, not the Star Chamber that Kemi will have planned now) was pretty poor. I don't know what they got in return for that favour. I doubt Vince Cable was impressed, having had the BSkyB decision taken away from him and given to Hunt. Maybe Vince sounded off in The Observer that weekend, which is something I recall from the period. This was very David Brent "you should have seen me in there".

Give them a free vote if they vote for Christmas they are absolutely stupid.

I’m done with the lot of them, no one has yet to contradict the PM whether that be ministers or civil servants. There maybe issues about other things.

Fair dos, this is a decent idea. Ed Davey says ban MPs from earning off social media (mostly X, I think).

Find it hard to believe that Rupert Lowe writes his own stuff or even knows what the TwitterX is.

Why is it always the Lib Dems?

A new MP for me. Martin Wrigley (Newton Abbott). In the Westminster Hall debate on Palantir.

I see that the outgoing NHS England chief data and analytics officer, Ming Tang, has publicly joined Palantir’s fightback, saying that the system is delivering—but having introduced Palantir and lobbied to deploy it, she would say that, wouldn’t she? Given Palantir’s habit of lobbying civil servants and the revolving door from Government, I wait to see where she will end up.

Per Tom Bartlett (the senior former NHS IT manager I mentioned on the other thread):

I would also like to address the comments made about Ming Tang, the outgoing Chief Data and Analytics Officer at NHS England. She did not "introduce" Palantir; this is something credited to members of the Government at the time. She led the implementation and then oversaw a procurement that followed the regulations. Public servants who deliver complex programmes under intense political pressure deserve fair treatment, not personal attacks under parliamentary privilege. Getting that right matters, because the NHS will need talented people to step into difficult leadership roles in the future, and they need to know that doing the job well will not make them a target.

This "revolving door" stuff writes itself (every issue of Private Eye), but what's the alternative? That people who take on senior public sector roles have to stay there forever or have to take a job completely unrelated to what they've just spent years doing? I think it's right for ministers to have very strict rules stopping them working quickly for organizations they've helped as ministers, but Ming Tang seems to have had no decision making power to favour Palantir or anyone else.

https://www.bartlettdata.co.uk/post/wha ... fdp-debate

Ha ha ha. Great reply here. Liz Jarvis MP says that bringing back ex-PMs didn't help the Tories (though she says she does respect Brown).

Some interesting food for thought from post Silicon Valley Nick Clegg on tech and industrial renewal. Whether you agree or not, Clegg has more vision and knowledge than the dreary and sketchy prognosis for the economy coming from Andy Burnham or Starmer. Some of the critique is familiar and old as the hills (why can't innovative Britain produce the big companies) but in the context of UK and Europe's present inertia.