Tag Archives: theresa may

Snooping protesters plan to copy all emails to Theresa May for a day

3:35pm Thu April 5th

In an amusing use of social media, campaigners plan to bombard the home secretary with messages on a “National CC all your e-mails to Theresa May Day” to protest against the government’s email monitoring plans.

A page on Facebook says:

“The government wants to store all our e-mails in a huge database? OK, we’ll save them the trouble by cc-ing the Home Secretary on every e-mail we send for a whole day.”

The plans, announced at the weekend, to allow various agencies to monitor email and social media communications without a warrant, run contrary to both Conservative and Lib Dem statements in opposition and the coalition agreement, and have led to a great deal of anguished soul-searching by Nick Clegg.

Ms May could find an awful lot of boring emails coming her way.

Embattled Theresa May attempts to have a laugh (at Ken Clarke)

7:14am Thu November 17th

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The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards took place last night. Highlights from the winners include:

Campaigner of the year: Stella Creasy
Survivor of the year: Chris Huhne
Inquisitor of the year: John Whittingdale, on behalf of the Murdoch-grilling Culture Media and Sport Committee

With attendant politicos and hacks rendered more forgiving by champagne, such bashes have become the setting in which troubled politicians can have a laugh (often at themselves) — and regain some initiative in the process.

With no one in government in need of a fillip more than the home secretary, one of the “lines of the night” (outside a toilet cubicle, at least) reportedly came from Theresa May in the form of this barb at Ken Clarke:

“I lock ‘em up — you let ‘em out.”

But surely that quip should have begun “I let ‘em in …”?

Immigration row: ex-borders chief completely contradicts Theresa May

12:06pm Tue November 15th

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The ousted chief of the UK Border Force Brodie Clark is currently giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee — and is completely contradicting what Theresa May has told them:

“I introduced no additions to the Home Secretary’s trial – neither did I extend it or alter it in any way whatsoever … I did not enlarge, extend or redefine the scope in any way.”

Theresa May was apparently provided with a “two to three page update” each week on border trials. Conveniently enough, however, we won’t be finding out what she knew any time soon as it will be Damian Green who will take the heat in the Commons at 12:30pm, fielding urgent questions from Yvette Cooper.

Is he being lined up for the Beverley Hughes treatment?

May slammed immigration minister: “don’t blame it on your officials”

11:41am Wed November 9th

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In a 2004 exchange which is set to haunt embattled Theresa May, the present home secretary told a Labour minister to resign over an immigration scandal, saying that she was “sick and tired” of ministers blaming other people “when things go wrong”.

The minister in question was Beverley Hughes, and the issue was a scandal over immigrants, erm, being admitted into the UK without background checks! Confronting Hughes on BBC Question Time, May told the minister:

“I do think Beverley should resign as minister on this particular issue and I find it absolutely extraordinary that she’s… blamed officials in her department for this decision to be taken”

The home secretary, who is currently blaming everyone else for a poor grasp on her portfolio, continued:

“I’m sick and tired of government ministers in this Labour government who simply blame other people when things go wrong.”

In a simply uncanny occurence of political deja vu, a number of immigrants were admitted to the UK without background checks in 2004. At the time, Hughes blamed officials in Sheffield for the backlog of applications which led to the blunder. That issue was highlighted by a civil service whistle blower who leaked the waiving of checks.

Beverley Huhges resigned 21 days later.

Time for Theresa May to take her own advice.

That Conservative Party human rights policy in full

10:56am Mon October 3rd

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Theresa May’s call in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph for the Human Rights Act to be scrapped, delighted the right wing of her party and sent a shiver down the spines of Liberal Democrats. A flick through the news clippings will yield further insights into the Tory policy process:

“Parliament dog ban breaches my human rights” (June 2011)

“Scrap the Human Rights Act” (October 2011)

Earlier this year, Conservative MP Matthew Offord claimed that not allowing him to bring his dog into Parliament was a breach of his human rights.

So, Theresa, how is this lovable Jack Russell going to get into the Commons now?

Theresa May’s speech to police met with fanfare of pure silence

9:28pm Wed May 18th

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On a day the government would rather forget, Theresa May has given David Cameron even more of a headache after her speech to more than 1,000 officers was met with complete silence and 40 minutes of highly critical questioning.

The speech delivered to the Police Federation outlined both the reforms to the police service and a review of pay and conditions, leading to an embarrassing video-link confrontation with PC David Rathband, the officer blinded by Raoul Moat, who responded:

“I was paid £35,000 last year. Do you think it was too much?”

Whilst the Home Secretary received a hostile reception, officers cheered PC Sarah Adams, who said that Theresa May could not expect the police to trust her again.

To compound her misery, a video of officers being injured during the student protests was played, vindicating the chairman of the Police Federation’s roundly dismissed point that the cuts would lead to public disorder.

Even Thatcher was sensible enough to keep the police on her side.

Was Theresa May shopping for shoes in the Commons chamber?

2:17pm Tue January 25th

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Everyone knows about Theresa May’s love of footwear, but has she been breaking Commons rules?

MPs are only allowed to read material related to the debate in the Commons chamber — which means no newspapers or magazines.

So what was someone doing with a catalogue for, erm, Ugg Boots on the Tory benches yesterday?

Scrapbook doubts it can be Bob Neill’s, who was wrapping up the adjournment debate. But surely it’s not a coincidence that Theresa May was in the chamber for Home Office Questions earlier in the day.

Was the magazine handily placed for a PPS on the second bench to pass it to Theresa during a quiet moment?

Home Office police white paper contains complete myth

2:51pm Tue July 27th

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Theresa May’s white paper on police cuts reform includes proposals such as the replacement of some police with unpaid reservists as a “clear manifestation of the ‘big society’ in action”. In a great spot by the Exclorative blog, it also features an anecdotal untruth about so-called bureaucracy. Section 3.11 of the document, entitled “Policing in the 21st century: reconnecting police and the people” claims:

Whole shopping trolleys’ worth of guidance is loaded onto the police during the course of a year. Whether this is guidance for officers on how to dress or 92 pages on how to ride a bike – this has to be reduced.

Very good. Except no such bike manual was ever in use by police. A unofficial training guide was produced by a group of enterprising officers but it was never adopted, as police chiefs clearly stated when this story originally did the rounds:

This work was neither requested nor drawn up by ACPO and we do not endorse it. It was put forward by a group of well meaning police officers with an interest in this area. ACPO will not be taking it forward.

One would hope the government had a better purchase on reality than a Daily Express hack or Mark Wallace.

What next:” immigration white paper proposes halt to free cars and mobile phones for asylum seekers”?

Tag Archives: theresa may

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