New Agenda on Sunday. is out! Edition of 5th November 2017

https://paper.li/f-1346065353#/

Good morning everyone.

Theresa May picks chief whip Gavin Williamson as replacement Foreign Secretary.

Gavin who?
Most of the world have never even heard of this non entity, while most of the conservative MP's are very unhappy that this tarantula breeding "whip", who has little if any experience and even less charisma, has been promoted to one of the four great offices of State. Theresa May is really scraping the barrel to fill the posts in her now discredited and fractured cabinet as more and more MP's refuse to be associated with or take posts in a government cabinet, which has lost all legitimacy under the "leadership" of a lame duck Prime Minister.

Gavin Williamson's promotion is of course a direct consequence of the sexual harassment scandals currently sweeping the corridors of Parliament, the political parties and beyond. There is no doubt what so ever, that harassment of any description is intolerable and should be removed, with those responsible for such abuse being dealt with most severely. It does however strike me as a little odd that the allegations seem to be subject to investigation by "internal" Parliamentary or Party bodies when the most appropriate investigatory organisations must and should, in my opinion, be the police.

There is however, one aspect of this unravelling scandal that causes particular concern. The way in which television and the media generally are seeking to drag "politics", into their coverage is both sinister and distorting. Both Labour and Conservative MP's and party workers are involved in these sordid events but which political party they may belong to has no bearing on the case. The media generally, particularly Sky Television News, relish in reporting the latest scandal emphasising the political party, especially if that party is Labour, to which the alleged perpetrator is a member of.

Sexual harassment and abuse carried out by those in power, is a crime by one individual against another regardless of any other consideration. Television and the rest of the media world should bear this in mind when preparing their reports.

A report in the press which caught my eye came from the new book by the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In an extraordinary "allegation" Brown now accepts what many of us have been arguing for years. He states that "The US defence department knew that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction but kept Britain in the dark" and "war could not be justified as a last resort and invasion cannot now be seen as a proportionate response”. This evidence was never examined by the Chilcott Inquiry and thus contributed to the wishy washy conclusions. Brown stops short however of speculating or confirming that Blair knew all along and took this country to war on a fairy tale and a pack of lies.

Meanwhile, back in Jersey, even the State police are being forced into cost cutting measures. The latest way to save money comes from the Island’s deputy police chief, Julian Blazeby said he would examine a range of options to make the force ‘more effective and efficient’. One measure he suggests would be to encourage islanders to wash police patrol cars and other vehicles. He does not say if the volunteers will be providing their own water and chamois leathers.

The Express is still predicting heavy snow and penetrating frost. Ces't la vie.

Have a nice week

John