Grayling and the SoS for Transport role.

[the sniper]

You'd have to get rid of Peter Wilkinson if you want to do that.

You'd have to be able to find him first!

 

[WatcherZero]

Grayling remains in position.



Who is that?

David lidlington.


Justine Greening education secretary has just resigned after refusing work and pensions and saying she wanted to remain in education. Remainer from a majority remain constituency so new brexit rebel and loss to Northern representation.

 

[mpthomson]

Or again, Grayling refused to budge.

Or more likely the pundits were wrong and there was never any intention to move him.

 

[A0]

David lidlington.


Justine Greening health secretary has just resigned after refusing work and pensions and saying she wanted to remain in health. Remainer from a majority remain constituency so new brexit rebel and loss to Northern representation.

?????? Greening was / is Education Sec and represents Putney, which isn't even north London let alone North.

 

[northwichcat]

Or more likely the pundits were wrong and there was never any intention to move him.

Why did the Conservatives confirm Grayling's move through two of the parties official communication channels?

 

[Darandio]

Or more likely the pundits were wrong and there was never any intention to move him.

The pundits reported exactly what information was provided, many of us saw the same official anouncements. Have you been following it today?

Maybe the thread title should be amended again as well, maybe something like 'January 8th Farcical Government Reshuffle'

 

[northwichcat]

?????? Greening was / is Education Sec and represents Putney, which isn't even north London let alone North.

Yes Greening was Education. Hunt is Health and was tipped to be moved to Business but reportedly refused. Greening also has a poor track record so it was actually a surprise she was given an important role like Education in the first place.

Greening is originally from Yorkshire but as you say she represents a South London seat, which is a marginal.

 

[WatcherZero]

Shes from Rotheram and a strong advocate of Northern issues.

 

[Gareth Marston]

From Theresa Mays point of view he won't be rampaging through a new department causing fresh damage.

He's already upset South Wales, South Yorkshire and East Midlands by cancelling promised electrification schemes. Everybody including commuters from Tory voting areas with this years fare increases. He's stirring the pot on DOO and strikes she probably thinks he can't do any more harm than he already has.

 

[mpthomson]

Why did the Conservatives confirm Grayling's move through two of the parties official communication channels?

They didn’t, it was a rumour that someone confirmed as a fact without actually knowing. The BBC ‘confirmed’ incorrectly and without any knowledge. A CCHQ staff chap assumed this was correct and tweeted it when it wasn’t. The wonks in CCHQ won’t know any detail until it’s confirmed, just like the rest of us. The detail as to how and why is on the Guido Fawkes website, but fundamentally he was never offered the Chairman’s role.

 

[mpthomson]

The pundits reported exactly what information was provided, many of us saw the same official anouncements. Have you been following it today?

Maybe the thread title should be amended again as well, maybe something like 'January 8th Farcical Government Reshuffle'

Yes I have, see my post above as to why this happened. The social media wonks don’t have any prior knowledge so that it can’t be leaked. It was a cock up and he’d never been offered it. The exact timeline is on Guido Fawkes website and it’s obvious what has happened when you look at that.

 

[Darandio]

Shes from Rotheram and a strong advocate of Northern issues.

Indeed, and therefore absolutely no good to a Tory government.

 

[Darandio]

Yes I have, see my post above as to why this happened. The social media wonks don’t have any prior knowledge so that it can’t be leaked. It was a cock up and he’d never been offered it. The exact timeline is on Guido Fawkes website and it’s obvious what has happened when you look at that.

I still don't see that as the pundits getting it wrong though, they have every reason to report such an announcement as fact.

 

[mpthomson]

I still don't see that as the pundits getting it wrong though, they have every reason to report such an announcement as fact.

But in this case they didn’t and it wasn’t a fact, they went off prematurely. Have a look at the timeline. Guido is very critical of Conservative HQ over this but it’s clear in what order it had happened.

 

[Darandio]

But in this case they didn’t and it wasn’t a fact, they went off prematurely. Have a look at the timeline. Guido is very critical of Conservative HQ over this but it’s clear in what order it had happened.

Yes, just read the timeline. Very much a side shambles in yet another shamblolic day in government.

 

[mpthomson]

Yes, just read the timeline. Very much a side shambles in yet another shamblolic day in government.

Interestingly and of far more relevance and newsworthiness at this precise moment to most of the population the one minister who refused to be moved was Jeremy Hunt, but that is reported as that rather than Grayling which is clearly people getting itchy Twitter fingers.

 

[northwichcat]

They didn’t, it was a rumour that someone confirmed as a fact without actually knowing. The BBC ‘confirmed’ incorrectly and without any knowledge. A CCHQ staff chap assumed this was correct and tweeted it when it wasn’t. The wonks in CCHQ won’t know any detail until it’s confirmed, just like the rest of us. The detail as to how and why is on the Guido Fawkes website, but fundamentally he was never offered the Chairman’s role.

An annoucement was put on the Conservative Party's official verified Twitter feed and then deleted. Unless the Conservative's account was hacked it was a screw up by the Conservative Party, end of story.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Justine Greening education secretary has just resigned after refusing work and pensions and saying she wanted to remain in education. Remainer from a majority remain constituency so new brexit rebel and loss to Northern representation.

And under her watch as Transport Secretary NR received the huge CP5 settlement which included all those electrification schemes (electric spine etc) we are not now delivering.
Unfortunately she was also in charge when the ICWC franchise fiasco was perpetrated (Patrick McLoughlin had just taken over when the reality dawned, and took the flak).
But undoubtedly a supporter of rail.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

You'd have to get rid of Peter Wilkinson The Tories if you want to do that.

Fixed that for you...

 

[mpthomson]

An annoucement was put on the Conservative Party's official verified Twitter feed and then deleted. Unless the Conservative's account was hacked it was a screw up by the Conservative Party, end of story.

Not arguing with that, but the premature ness of the announcement originally was down to the Beeb, and a Conservative HQ worker saw it and thought it was confirmed, which it wasn’t as the Beeb got it wrong, and tweeted it out... Read the Guido Fawkes take on it, and it becomes clear. It’s two cock ups in very close succession in the end, one BBC and one CCHQ.

 

[Busaholic]

Rewind - Theresa May announces her candidature for the soon-to-be-vacant Prime Ministership (I almost wrote Premiership, which could provide some nice football analogies). Who is her main backer from the so-called A list? Why, none other than Chris Grayling, the well-known Leaver and co-conspirator with her to put British justice back 200 years. And her campaign manager? Brandon Lewis, provoking a lot of google searches to find out who he is. Both have duly had their reward.

Now to Justine Greening - she was the most vocal in Cabinet demanding to know what Johnson, Davis and co. were achieving in Brexit negotiations. Johnson from thereon in makes it his mission to get her out (there's more than a touch of Trump about Boris, other than the stupid hair) and has succeeded. If Heathrow expansion ever gets mentioned again, expect Greening to be amongst the most vocal opponents.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

He's my MP. I read somewhere that he dropped the Oyster thing because he couldn't be seen to use his ministerial responsibility to win votes in his constituency. Which, to be fair, is one of the more reasonable things he's come out with.

I'm also in Epsom...

Yes, you are right - there is a convention that a Minister cannot handle any matter that is solely within his or her constituency which comes under their ministerial brief but must instead delegate it to a neighboring MP. In practice that means nothing can be done about it anyway because, think about it, who would the neighboring MP be lobbying for the change...?

The issue does not arise if a change affects several constituencies even if one of them is that of the Minister, but in this case it would only be the one constituency affected.

That doesn't mean it can't be included as part of a general review of the zones while he is Minister, but there is no reason to have such a review in the first place.

 

[Busaholic]

I'm also in Epsom...

Yes, you are right - there is a convention that a Minister cannot handle any matter that is solely within his or her constituency which comes under their ministerial brief but must instead delegate it to a neighboring MP. In practice that means nothing can be done about it anyway because, think about it, who would the neighboring MP be lobbying for the change...?

The issue does not arise if a change affects several constituencies even if one of them is that of the Minister, but in this case it would only be the one constituency affected.

That doesn't mean it can't be included as part of a general review of the zones while he is Minister, but there is no reason to have such a review in the first place.

Didn't Stephen Hammond, when a Transport Minister as well as MP for Wimbledon, preside over an alteration to Thameslink 2000 plans for the Wimbledon/Sutton loop services that most people thought was to the detriment of all other Thameslink services?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Didn't Stephen Hammond, when a Transport Minister as well as MP for Wimbledon, preside over an alteration to Thameslink 2000 plans for the Wimbledon/Sutton loop services that most people thought was to the detriment of all other Thameslink services?

If that was the thing about not doubling the service on the loop simply to avoid having them terminate at Blackfriars, then it probably doesn't fall foul of the rules as it not only was a detrimental plan rather than a beneficial one but it also covered multiple constituencies.

If it was something else, please remind me and I'll see the reply tomorrow.

 

[Requeststop]

How many Transport Secretary's have there been since 1997?
Everyone says they need someone to stay in the office and see through policies.
Then we get a re-shuffle in which the one Sec of State we'd love to loose gets to stay.
Damn! We just cannot win can we.

 

[edwin_m]

I am not sure that changing a transport minister has much effect on policy. What is needed is to remove the "Sir Humphrey" types at the ministry and replace them by people having a more favourable attitude to a modern, progressive railway.(e.g. a less favourable view of expensive things like bi-mode trains)

Not sure that is always so. Arrival of Adonis during the Brown government seemed to coincide with a change in attitude, as also did the replacement of McLoughlin by Grayling.

 

[DarloRich]

Why did the Conservatives confirm Grayling's move through two of the parties official communication channels?

they didn't - someone cocked up by putting 2 & 2 together to make 17.

 

[northwichcat]

Not arguing with that, but the premature ness of the announcement originally was down to the Beeb, and a Conservative HQ worker saw it and thought it was confirmed, which it wasn’t as the Beeb got it wrong, and tweeted it out... Read the Guido Fawkes take on it, and it becomes clear. It’s two cock ups in very close succession in the end, one BBC and one CCHQ.

The BBC said something like BBC News understands that Grayling is to be offered the Conservative Chairman role, we are awaiting official confirmation, so what did someone manning the Conservative Twitter feed do officially confirm it, before someone removed the confirmation.

 

[mpthomson]

The BBC said something like BBC News understands that Grayling is to be offered the Conservative Chairman role, we are awaiting official confirmation, so what did someone manning the Conservative Twitter feed do officially confirm it, before someone removed the confirmation.

Which is precisely what I said..... one cock-up, the BBC rumour mill getting it wrong (which they did with other bits of the reshuffle too), followed by another, the CCHQ chap reporting it as fact when it was a rumour. The confirmation was up for 27 seconds before the error was realised.

The wider party HQs don't know any detail of reshuffles prior to them happening to stop them leaking the information prior to it being formally announced by whichever party leader's direct office.

 

[northwichcat]

Which is precisely what I said..... one cock-up, the BBC rumour mill getting it wrong (which they did with other bits of the reshuffle too)

When they say 'BBC News understands' and 'we're awaiting official confirmation' it means the BBC are admitting the source(s) that told are not from official representatives of the Conservative Party and they are awaiting something official from the Conservative Party.

The confirmation was up for 27 seconds before the error was realised.

Given journalists probably had the Twitter feed open and were awaiting tweets to appear that's enough time to be seen by journalists. I'm aware if you have a Twitter feed open it automatically loads any new Tweets but I'm pretty sure it doesn't automatically removes any deleted Tweets so it was probably showing in journalist's Twitter feeds for much longer than 27 seconds. I've tried to reply to Tweets before to only find once I've finished writing a response that the Tweet has been deleted.