This promise to focus on "increasing openness and transparency" can't have been made by a Cabinet Minister whose advisor scooped the jackpot in the VIP lane she refuses to come clean about? Can it?
Reader, it can.
It's from Liz Truss' speech boldly entitled "Fight for Fairness" (fairness here meaning, one assumes, fairness for those connected to Cabinet Ministers.) #OneRuleForThem
I have to say, @trussliz, I rose to my feet in applause at this bit.
And the hits just keep on coming.
One might almost forget the National Audit Office found you were doing the complete opposite.
(Thank you to @CrispinPassmore who gamely read the whole Liz Truss "Sermon on Thin Ice".)
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"Failing to act will result in natural catastrophes and changing weather patterns, as well as significant economic damage, supply chain disruption and displacement of populations": @AlokSharma_RDGcrowdjustice.com/case/heathrowh…
Earlier this year, @GoodLawProject brought litigation to force Government to review its planning policy in relation to Energy infrastructure because that policy predated its June 2019 NetZero 2050 commitment.
We believe there is a similar challenge to be brought in relation to Heathrow Airport expansion. The reasoning of the Supreme Court earlier this week is explicitly confined to the state of the world as it existed in June 2018 - before the NetZero target.
I was wondering what kind of a 'Christian' you'd have to be to look at people not having food to eat and be outraged that UNICEF was feeding them. But then I remembered when Rees-Mogg said that the people who died at Grenfell died because they lacked his commonsense.
(This is absolutely not an attack on the Church, by the way. I am not religious but we live very near a church and I know full well the incredible work @churchofengland does in my parish.)
"The end of the Transition Period provides an historic opportunity to overhaul our outdated public procurement regime," writes Lord Agnew in this long awaited Green Paper assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…. If these words don't strike terror into your heart they should.
Remember, the Government's position is that no one has the ability to bring a public interest challenge to it giving contracts worth hundreds of millions to its mates. Only disaffected bidders, Government says, can bring those challenges.
We don't yet know whether Government's position is right. The position of the Administrative Court so far, is that it is arguable we do have standing. But we have no *financial* interest in pursuing procurement claims in the public interest.
"I've moved a long way in my conceptualisation of what privilege really means, and quite how extraordinarily stupid and thoughtless and arrogant my tribe can be" vice.com/en/article/qjp…
I am really pleased I gave this interview to @RubyJLL. I haven't wanted to do media and have turned down a lot of bids - our media generally is in a terrible place - but there were two things I really wanted to say.
The first - and I feel this point keenly and have the proselytising zeal of the newly converted - is that people of privilege really, really, really need to get better at actually listening to those without it.
We need to talk about the 'expert' witness statement evidence led by Ms Bell in her successful case before the Tavistock. THREAD
You can see who gave evidence in her support from these extracts from the Tavistock's Skeleton Argument.
Helpful for you to bear in mind that her solicitor was a man called Paul Conrathe, who has a long association with the religious right in the US (I have talked about him a number of times but this is as good a starting point as any).
If you look at the evidence - including from the UK - it tells you that allowing gender incongruent children and teenagers to 'affirm' in their chosen gender reduces suicide risks. Strip away all the sound and the fury and what last week's judgment means is more cases like this.
Of course, any fair judicial process would have heard from trans children/young adults about the benefits of puberty blockers. But the Divisional Court, in a manner I am still shocked by today, declined to hear from any voice representing their interests.
Puberty blockers are used throughout the world. They are used because transgender teenagers overwhelmingly 'affirm' and unless you arrest their puberty you cruelly force them to live a life where their body - eg an adam's apple, a deep voice - is incongruent with their gender.