I haveĀ no wish to give interviews or to offer public advice to the PrimeĀ Minister over the Home Secretary. The BBC who never want to interview me on things I know about and talk aboutĀ are suddenly very keen to hear my view on this.
The PMĀ has three main options.
He can say that they agree about the policy and the Secretary of State continues in office to see it through, whilst choosing her own language to explain the common position which he does not have to endorse word for word.
He can say he disagrees with clearly identified comments she has made and ask her to step aside. He then would need to explain what was wrong with what she has said and have an alternativeĀ view.
He can say they are agreed about the policy but he does not agree with identified phrases in the article that isĀ causing such a stir. He couldĀ get her to agree she will not repeat in future any offending phrases but will use ones that are less contentious.
I put this out as doubtless many of you have views and want to express them.
November 10, 2023
Too right I have a comment, Suella for PM?
November 11, 2023
maybe if she had achieved anything, but illegal immigrants are still coming ashore by the boat load on our southern shores and she is home sec
she talks a good talk, but she is not the answer the country needs
November 11, 2023
The police role is to Prevent and detect crime without fear or favour. Emphasis is always better to prevent a crime than detecting one that has been committed. Met commissioner has got it completely wrong, poorly advised or totally incompetent about police role or the law concerning marches. There is ample evidence crime is most likely to be committed, further more it is antagonistic for such a march to take place on a historically known date for remembrance. However he will balance whether it is more likely disorder will take place allowing the March or trying stopping it. When dealing with fanatics it could be a hard decision to reach if the decision maker is weak, woke or feeble.
November 11, 2023
Iain
Sunak is in Charge of Actual Policies, simples !
November 11, 2023
I see for all his faults the tweet Boris made tonight is exactly what the current PM and cabinet should have said.
November 11, 2023
Got on a train at Clapham Junction just before 4pm. There was a large family, including children with placards, who had just come from the march. They were not violent trouble-making types, just an ethnic minority out to make their voice heard.
Checking the news, the rally started in Hyde Park and moved down Vauxhall Bridge Road.
So nowhere near the Cenotaph.
November 11, 2023
I see Michael Gove has been swarmed by a pro Palestinian mob…
I will be watching with interest to see what he says after experiencing the hate first hand.
November 10, 2023
If she is sacked, and she should not be, because she is making the best of a difficult job, whilst fighting the judiciary and some of her own officials, it will finally confirm Sunak has no balls.
The gist of her letter, absolutely correct. What we have is the permanently offended elites, opposition, ambitious colleagues etc picking on selective phrases out of context and using them to like in supported by the usual out of control blood thirsty press.
Isabel Oakeshott absolutely spot on in the DT this morning, police and government, woke, weak and incompetent.
November 10, 2023
Hi sir John
We live in a country where people can protest on our streets and be disrespectful to our country , we live in a country of free speech we are being invade by people on boats, there are terrorist groups marching protesting on our peaceful streets
How many times does a group of protesters have to march to make their point?
It’s easy for groups to protest when they are thousands of miles away.
in a safe country from what they are protesting about in a safe democracy where they are allowed to live safe
I’m sure they could fly to the country and help their fight .
November 11, 2023
Why aren’t they going to Jordan, Eygpt, Syria, Lebanon to protest?
What do they think UK can do about the problems.?
November 10, 2023
DT comment today.ā The public want the government to do more than complain from the sidelines.ā
Yes. It also a metaphor for their wider inadequacies.
November 10, 2023
The current Prime Minister is puny and not suited for office. He was not chosen by the electorate nor even the Conservative Party membership in a ballot. The Home Secretary speaks openly and many agree with what she intends, but she similarly achieves virtually nothing useful. They should both go and leave such important roles to those who are worthy of leading.
The first of SJR three options is the cleanest, yet all three just aim at delaying both peopleās overdue removal as unwanted examples of uselessness.
November 10, 2023
It would seem to me that, if No. 10 wishes to control everything a Minister says, writes or does, then they have either appointed the wrong person as Minister or we do not need Ministers at all!
November 11, 2023
Well said.
November 10, 2023
Suella Braverman speaks for the ever diminishing English/British population in the UK. The far left/woke religious fanatics have had their way too long. If the remembrance service is in any way damaged by the supporters of Hamas who live among us. It’s not Suella to blame it’s your hopeless Gov. that continues to allow thousands of immigrants into this country every year. Immigrants that not only refuse to assimilate but many of whom act against us.
If Sunak bows to the far left and sacks her she would make an excellent Reform party member.
November 10, 2023
It is about time we had a Home Secretary who doesn’t waffle, when unambiguous language is required.
We all know that is a problem for politicians.
November 10, 2023
Sunakās got a problem, I canāt see many Conservative supporters disagreeing with her, she is obviously emotionally charged about this matter because her husband is a Jew and she will be well aware of the fear in that community. The MPs have got to be more careful and the left would love another Brexiteerās scalp theyāre the juiciest, by pandering to them you are destroying yourself, I wish sheād run her statements past you John for moderation because youāre a bit longer in the tooth than she is and can see the pit falls.
That Sunak didnāt surround himself with experienced Ministers who can handle the press is his biggest problem. However, the press let Khan off without any interrogation, they turn a blind eye to Reeves putting out a book she plagerised so she canāt think for herself, soft soap all around. Because they want a change to get us back paying into the EU.
November 10, 2023
@a-tracy; Sunak does not have a problem, the Tory party and the country has the problem, Sunak holds all the Ace cards if push comes to shove. Didn’t Johnson have the Fixed Term Parliament Act revoked … the ultimate version of “Back me, or sack us”, to bring errant Cabinet members to heel! If the Conservatives are re-elected Sunak has the mandate, if defeated he does what John Major did in 1997, and the Tory Party starts navel gazing again, whilst Starmer makes hey.
Also do not assume all Jewish people support the line taken by Israel, go read what Gerald Kaufman said over the years before he died, a Jew himself, who lost his Polish grandmother in the Holocaust.
I read what you say about the Home Secretary’s family ties, but all that does is show Braverman is perhaps not suited to a job were ones personal emotions need to be put aside, such a high ranking Cabinet position is not 9-5, it is 24/7 365. Also the Home Office have powers to ban marches that can be used interdependently of the (Met) Police, so why say what she has -unless her intent was to cause a row.
November 11, 2023
Yes the Kaufman speech in The Lords was outstanding. Raised as an orthodox Jew and an ardent Zionist who knew the Israeli prime ministers from Ben-Gurion to Golda Meir.
I wrongly assumed he was just an arty type who promoted events in The Barbican.
He continued to get grief for letting the side down from the Israel Lobby.
November 14, 2023
Where in my reply did I ‘all Jewish people support the line taken by Israel,’?
“she is obviously emotionally charged about this matter because her husband is a Jew and she will be well aware of the fear in that community.” I was talking about the fear of Jews in London and our other Cities on Saturdays.
November 10, 2023
I cannot see why there are calls for the Home Secretary to be sacked over this, We can ignore the ritual calls from other parties, but some Conservative MPs should be ashamed of themselves.
They are so out of step with the mood in the country over this coming weekend, let alone Conservative voters.
Ministers do not have to get every article or statement approved by No 10.
Before his meeting on Wednesday with Rowley, Sunak was calling for this weekend’s march to be cancelled.
In her Times article on Thursday, Suella stated the same thing and went on to say what is plain to just about everybody : the Met does not treat all demonstrations equally. First there is the treatment of female demonstrators following Sarah Everard’s murder by a serving officer, but I would draw particular attention to the two English lads who were recorded by a TV crew being told by Met police officers not to walk around waving the England flag while at the same time, flags of two officially-proscribed terrorist organisations, ISIS and Hamas, were being openly waved around my Islamists ! What about the two English lads right to protest ? The officers should have been protecting them.
We have a year or so left before an election. Enough time for constituency committees to get rid of some of the so-called Conservative MPs who should really be in the LibDim or Labour party.
November 10, 2023
Sunak cannot afford to lose a Home Secretary that is popular with Conservative grass roots and is not afraid to be controversial, unlike so much of our weak political class.
If drink, drugs and mental health mean that individuals are not welcome to sofa-surf or share accommodation with friends or families, then special measures are needed to get them safely off the streets.
Sadly, “Care in the Community” has a lot to answer for. Rejecting the institutionalisation of those with problems merely casts them out onto the streets which seems cruel to me.
November 10, 2023
@David Paine; Grass roots Tories do not get the Party (re) elected to government, the centrist floating voters do, people who flip their votes on a whim, and most likley no longer buy newspapers, instead getting their news and opinion from social media feeds.
November 10, 2023
Given only the three options, the first would be best. But he should also put some meaning to his words by stopping the boats, curtailing legal immigration (by about 60 -70%), acting against the cancel culture, ensuring free movement of goods between NI and Britain and removing the requirement on UK for close regulatory alignment with the EU by withdrawing the Windsor Framework and enacting legislation to change the application of the Northern Ireland protocol within the UK. He also needs to give more support to Kemi Badenoch on retained EU law, he won’t because the Windsor Framework blocks him
November 10, 2023
If the Prime Minister has not seen the videos of the police running away from BLM protestors who rioted and kneeling in tribute and compared this with the kettling and beating of other protests , the clobbering of lockdown protestors and the jailing of a man who couldn’t find a toilet and peed in a drain- then someone needs to send them to him. Suella is correct. The police higher ranks are biased wokeys.
November 10, 2023
My evidence comes from 25 years ago plus, when a neighbour and friend was a newly retired Assistant Chief Constable who had in his senior career worked in the Met. This was way before Woke had ever been invented. At the time however there were questionable decisions and actions coming out of our police forces. Undue vendettas against motorists in North Wales, undue fraternisation involving dancing in carnivals, and most important a gradual withdrawl from minor crime which I view as the training crime for even bigger ones.
When discussing these events I was told that one must look at the qualifying courses that senior policemen must pass through to gain really senior positions. The evidence was that the senior lecturers at Bramshill we largely filled with social scientists rather than successful thief takers. I was told that anyone seeking seniority had to accept the ethos of the course to pass and then decide in their subsequent career whether to apply the principals or revert to fighting crime. I would maintain that what we see now in the deficiencies of our police forces, the ignoring of low level crime, looking aside at political crime and riotous behaviour is the result.
This slow emasculation of policing is part of a general deterioration in behaviour in a
society diluted by mass immigration and standards in education. As far as the police are concerned the problem has its roots in the Home Office and its trickle down effect. Not the fault of Suella, it was well embedded before she got there. As boss of the HO she is right to point out deficiencies as she sees them. Collective support of her is more important than the traditional singing from the same hymn sheet that is seen as a means of applying power.
November 10, 2023
I think she’s a bit bonkers here (although hasn’t done anything bonkers enough, here, to get fired).
Upsetting the police – over what?!
The UK should, at worst, be neutral over Israel / Palestine (certainly not taking sides). At best (as I support), trying to broker a peace deal (1. Like in Northern Ireland where 30 years ago everyone thought they’d be fighting like mad dogs in N Ireland for another 300 years, and 2. Not forgetting how Israel has won a lot of support in the Arab / Muslim world the last 10 years and 3. How lots of Muslims in Iran and outside hate their current Islamic leadership).
Where we support Zionism but not aggressive / mad-dog Zionism (and there’s lots of secular and religious Jews who would agree with this – some religious Jews are even actively opposed to Zionism altogether!)
And this isn’t ultimately about the people of the Middle East but about making the world a bit of a safer place for UK citizens to live in.
Suella has no friggin plan / vision. She’s just a people-pleaser trying desperately to please people on the ‘right’ (although I think a lot of people who call themselves ‘right-wingers’ would agree with me on this!).
November 10, 2023
@Ed M; The Home Sec. has not upset the police, she has upset *everyone* who understands the reasons why there is (should be) operational distance between the Home Sec. and the Police, one a political appointment, the other apolitical. Short of politicizing the Monarchy, this is actually about as serious a miss-step as it gets!
November 11, 2023
I would agree with you if the police were genuinely apolitical. But after what we’ve seen in recent years I don’t see how you can claim that they are. For example, they have been very accommodating with political movements such as BLM, and hostile to demonstrators opposing government lockdown policy. They have tried to stop flag-waving if it’s the English flag but not if it’s a flag used by foreign terrorists who are enemies of this country. Suella B. is right to call out the police for their biased behaviour.
November 11, 2023
@Clough; Comparing the BLM and Anti Lockdown marches is complex, as are the Vigils for Sarah Everard, as different social gathering restrictions and PPE laws were in force at different times. But I agree, the Police are far from perfect and often get things wrong in the *heat of a situation* but here we are talking about decisions taken prior to an event.
“[they] stop flag-waving if itās the English flag but not if itās a flag used by foreign terrorists”
So using the English flag to ‘terrorize’ is OK? I would suggest those who go out with the intent to incite hate are also enemies of this country;
November 11, 2023
Surely, the police have a hard task as it is trying to catch dangerous criminals in the modern world we live in. Really don’t think her approach is the most intelligent …
Suella just strikes me of as just over-ambitious (meaning she doesn’t have the skills / abilities to match her ambition) which sums up for me so much of our Tory Party today (but I’m still sticking with the Tories – but Tories have just got to try and bring more people with more proper business experience and leadership into the Party).
Btw, I love the Ancient Greek story of Icarus, flying with wax wings towards the sun – and the wings melted and crashed. A perfect metaphor for over-ambition (ambition is GREAT as long as matched with ability – and of course with the right moral framework – I don’t doubt her morality but I do doubt her abilities etc).
November 11, 2023
@Ed M; Your second paragraph is spot on, about what the Tory Party actually needs, but will never get, far to many of its activists are not interested in business experience, it’s all about being “British” (often meaning English), the other three nations of our Union only of interest when they are of political use.
As for “Icarus”, indeed…
November 11, 2023
Nonsense Jerry.
The Home Secretary is the person responsible and is elected by the people in their constituency and then appointed by the Prime Minister.
If there is no control, no connection nor any responsibility by the elected government’s appointed ministers then the Police are free to behave as they wish.
When the Police act badly people like you call for the Home Secretary to resign.
November 12, 2023
@MiB; You’re the one spouting-on Martin, with grossly ill-informed nonsense at that,
Stop trying to politicize the police.
“If there is no control, no connection nor any responsibility by the elected governmentās appointed ministers then the Police are free to behave as they wish.”
Yes there are clear lines of command & responsibility, clear rules that have been laid down for decades now, but they are obviously not good enough for some it seems, wanting to tear up those clear lines of command and demarcation to obtain POLITICAL, *not policing*, goals – in short expecting the police to do ones own dirty work of banning a march that doesn’t fit their politics, then no doubt claim it wasn’t anything to do with the Home Office, rather than the Home Office used its own powers to ban the said march in the first place…
November 11, 2023
Ed M,
By all accounts, Netanyahu is unpopular in Israel itself and many want rid of him.
The solid support of USA for whatever the current Israeli government wants is also looking shaky.
American citizens are also protesting and politicians may now find their tenure in office under threat.
USA is also overstretched militarily -Ukraine, Israel, South China Seas etc. This offers an opportunity for rivals.
I agree with your comments about neutrality and the Norn Iron comparison.
I don’t think Braverman is ‘bonkers’. Possibly, like Priti Patel and Lee Anderson, she may think a so-called populist approach is in her best interests.
Finally, there is the idea that Israel/Western alliance suits both parties. Israel gets protection/cover from America in particular. The West gets an ally in the Middle East and a base to crucial oil routes in the region.
I think the tail is now wagging the dog. The West covers for what you describe as ‘mad dog Zionism’ with all the cost and reputational damage – but little benefit in return. Gaza citizens to be moved to Egypt or Canada is yet more cost and trouble.
November 10, 2023
Or he could remove her from office for a breach of the ministerial code and not have to justify it any further.
The biggest problem with our current Home Secretary is that she is high on rhetoric and short on delivery.
I agree with what she says but not with what she does.
The Prime Minister should stop worry about people who will NEVER vote for him.
November 10, 2023
Wellā¦someone needs to go on TV and say that Suella is ā¦
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.
I daresay the dear old beeb is hoping for a huge Tory civil war ( or is it already being waged?).
November 10, 2023
Anyway donāt worryā¦ the Mayor apparently wants to move Armistice Day to the next weekend.
It isnāt as important as whatās going on in Gaza.. he saysā¦.
The men who died to make us free were sadly misled.
That hard won freedom has been bestowed on others by those who stay safely ābehind the linesā.
And we, the descendants of heroes ( or so we were told) are swept to one side like dead leaves.
November 10, 2023
This shows how stupid our Mayor is.
Apart from the disrespect to the fallen if this happened which would be disgraceful, the protesters would just turn up again next weekend to make their point.
November 10, 2023
In my opinion , Armistice Day is non negotiable, and no one can move it.
The Mayor has no idea of history. He can make soundbites, to try and convince us that he is for law and order, but we know there is an election coming up.
November 10, 2023
I contend that the majority of the general public would endorse Suella’s views and stance.
If the PM has any regard or even awareness of public opinion I hope that Option 1 is his obvious choice.
November 10, 2023
Having read several articles, I am now of the view that freedom of speech and marches are two separate issues. I support freedom of speech but do not support towns being regularly disrupted by sizeable marches, particularly where the latter comprise vociferous minorities rather than the silent majority.
November 10, 2023
āDriving divisionā indeed!
Thereās only one group of politicians doing that.
Those who are NOT even handed in their dealings with people and seek to raise newcomers above all others.
And have sold their souls for a mess of critical race theory.
November 10, 2023
I imagine that the question is met with blank indifference by most people because this government has run its course and lacked legitimacy from the moment that Liz Truss was removed.
Most ministers are the creatures of their departments, none more so than Jeremy Hunt, and the decline will continue inexorably until the electorate speaks and having spoken will watch the decline continue under a new gaggle of incompetents..
November 10, 2023
The PM could always go and see the king and resign
Recommend that the home secretary is made the new PM.
November 10, 2023
Very good, Iain.
November 10, 2023
Agreed
November 10, 2023
Or he could say and do nothing at all but have his advisers secretly brief the newspapers that he doesnāt really agree with her and so make himself look even more feeble and weak than he does already.
November 10, 2023
Suella Braverman is in the minority in your party in that she is in touch with the public mood. The illegal (and legal) immigrants are an invasion and the woke left leaning police in this country do have double standards. No doubt Sunak will follow Hunt in distancing himself from the Home Secretary. Sunak, Hunt and the majority of so called Conservative MPs along with Starmer are on the wrong side as usual. If only the cowardice āToryā MPs had the guts, common sense, an iota of caring about what their constituents want, to replace the out of touch usurper and his sidekick with someone like Braverman, you might just have a chance at the next election.
November 10, 2023
As we know the collective āBlobā and some of the Media are still remainers that hate the UK. There are some MPās in Parliament that are Conservatives and as always the get briefed against, have things taken out of context and vilified by the Socialist Left.
It is apparent the Home Secretary, has for the most part had her hands tied by numerous semantics that surround this weak PM. A PM so weak he doesnāt allow the UK Parliament to be in charge of UK Laws but prefers them to be generated and maintained out side of the UKās Democratic process ā ECHR. That then cuts the legs from under all our Home Secretaries, result they are not allowed a function. Then we have the situation that for the most part she articulates the majority view of the electorate seems to account for nothing.
If the PM feels he should bow down yet again to the unaccountable, the trouble makers for UK Democracy, it is he that should go before anyone else.
November 10, 2023
We need a PM that is not a self serving Socialist WEF acolyte,that puts serving the Country it people and above all understands that being a Conservative is what people voted for. Sound-bites, deflection and failure to manage is why we are where we are today
November 10, 2023
IAN B – And from where are you going to find such individual? 650 MPs Total and very few worth with any substance.a vote. Career politicians mostly.
November 10, 2023
It must be strange for a Minister to know that when the flack hits, this Prime Minister will not have your back!
November 10, 2023
The only one to speak the truth.
November 10, 2023
It’s a conundrum. Clearly the Home Secretary is right that the Police have indeed treated various protesters differently. She gave some examples. But also the Home Secretary must support the Police. It should be possible to criticise a Police decision without causing the Home Secretary to resign. Equally it should be possible to criticise the Home Secretary’s statement without having to fire her. Could the Police not have said to the so called Palestine supporters that they cannot hold a march on Remembrance Sunday but you CAN the next week end? It’s not antidemocratic or anti free speech to say that the traditional days of ceremony or celebration such as Christmas or Remembrance or Easter Sunday are not OK for political demonstrations . Also why not listen to the suggestion to direct the whole Palestinian march to Hyde Park where Speakers corner can serve its intended purpose and those who are not supporters need not be inconvenienced. I would suggest the Police should be more robust in dictating terms so that Free speech is maintained but the population is not endangered or inconvenienced.
November 10, 2023
Regarding the Protest March on Armistice day, this CAN be STOPPED if WANTED.
November 10, 2023
What about a fourth available option, Sunak resigning and the Conservatives making Suella Braverman Leader and Prime Minister now? She would do a far, far better job than Sunak at both governing and winning votes at a general election. Unlike him she is properly Conservative, has the courage to do Conservative things (even if the leftist establishment hate it and her) .As well as being an original thinker, she has as everybody has noticed, a gift for language and oratory (more than any politician I can think of) and says what most Conservative voters and a great many of the people in the street think. If Sunak can’t bring himself to resign, what about promoting her to deputy Prime Minister as well as Home Secretary? That would at least much improve the Conservative result at the next election. She really is the best thing to have come the Conservative Party’s way since Boris Johnson and look what those fools who sit in Parliament did to him!
November 10, 2023
Oh dear, this is one of those “I would not use that language” opinions which always make my heart sink. It used to be said a lot of Boris too. Yet Boris and the Home Secretary use the English language well, write it well, choose their words well. Most people in public life don’t, alas. Far too many use incomprehensible jargon and euphemism to conceal the fact they don’t really want to say anything at all, in case they get into trouble with the left.
It wasn’t always like this. MPs used to say what they thought in their own words, and let their fellow MPs say what they thought in theirs. Sir John will know better, but I cannot imagine Mrs T having a clutch of squits in the office to check and pass what the Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw was going to say in his own sphere.
Furthermore, if the Commissioner has to ask the Home Secretary to ban a march if he judges it wise, why can’t she make that initial decision herself? I am sure Willie would have.
I see Alejo Vidal-Quadras has been shot in the head by a suspected Iranian assassin. He supported the same Iranian underground resistance movement that Sir David Amess did. (Sir David was also a senior Conservative Friend of Israel.) It isn’t just the Obama/Biden regime which is trying to deny the existence of their recklessly revived revolutionary Iran. No-one here seems to want to talk about Iran either. Yet we are having five times as many police as usual tomorrow, and servicemen have been advised not to wear their medals and insignia etc. on the journey up to London; all while still pretending the Commissioner can see no reason to suspect trouble. We all had to pretend Sir David was assassinated by people being rude to each other on the internet. But the Spaniards are naming the link.
The fact is, we are on the receiving end of a worldwide intifada, organized in Iran, and stepping up by the day. Today, for example, schoolchildren in Bristol played truant to go and chant From the River to the Sea etc outside the Cathedral. All very well drilled. They are going to keep it up, every Friday.
We should be uniting against this formidable enemy, not having absurd fits of the vapours over language. We need to defend ourselves. We are in a real mess, but it is not too late. The Home Secretary gets all this. The Shadow Home Secretary doesn’t seem to.
I bet any trouble tomorrow will all be the fault of the Home Secretary and the “Far Right”.
Etc ed
November 11, 2023
Israeli hardliners want to micromanage the language of the BBC, as if it was not already beholden to their storyline. The hardliners now want them to use the word āterroristsā when referring to Gaza/Palestinians.
Braverman uses the language of āThe Sunā referring to protests as a āhare marchā. This underlines that she is taking sides which has, so far, been a good career move for politicians who wish to get ahead. It is also dismissive of a grievance of a similar magnitude to the Iraq war protest.
It would be better if she had prevented the march from clashing with Armistice events using calmer language. She may think such outbursts will help her to replace Sunak though.
The talk around what should happen to her is more interesting than the outcome. Lots of politicians giving views. An interesting one was the Conservative who had decided to stand down at the next election but did not want Braverman leading the party after he left !
November 11, 2023
āhate marchā not āhareā.
November 11, 2023
Of course, Rowley has been telling us for years that the Far Right are the fastest growing threat to national security, and this was his chance to prove it.
November 12, 2023
(The anti Israel islamists were also hurling missiles.)
November 10, 2023
Operational policing issues are a matter for the police not politicians. Protest marches involving thousands of protesters require substantial police resources and itās a delicate balance when deciding to intervene and arrest risking aggravating the protesters and provoking a riot or investigating incidents after the demonstration. This is the policing dilemma. The Home Secretary is right to express concern over lightweight policing of BLM and Just Stop Oil, but these protests albeit annoying and very frustrating are completely deferent in scale and sensitivity to this weekendās protests. The place for raising policing methods is not via the media but quietly and confidentially.
November 10, 2023
We don’t know what has been said quietly and confidentially.
November 10, 2023
Dear Sir John,
Disregarding the immediate issue, it is clear that Mrs Braverman has been targeted for some time by those eager to bring her down. That is fair game for the Opposition. But the crucial, stinging attacks come from her fellow Conservatives.
The Home Secretary is just the latest in a long line: Mr Raab, Ms Truss, MrJohnson, Dame Priti Patel (twice) etc. It even extends to minor figures such as the tractor-loving farmer, exposed and brought down entirely by MPs on his own side. Most astonishing is that so many Conservative MPs voted to throw their own Prime Minister out of Parliament, even though many would not be in Parliament without him. It was Conservative MPs, not Labour or the media, who brought such people down.
Your party is truly the nasty party, even if not the way Mrs May had in mind. Disloyalty to each other has become the most identifiable quality of Conservative MPs. Nor is this just a post-2017 phenomenon. Many will recall the orchestrated pile-on against Mrs Leadsom. The ousting of IDS in 2003 was pointless even in its own terms since your Party did not win a Commons majority for a further 12 years.
Some of us can even remember our disgust at the organised character assassination of yourself in 1995, followed by a Labour landslide. Even today, it seems to me, your speeches are more generally respected by MPs on the other side, who often disagree with you, than by many on your own.
Since 2019, your party in Parliament has become so internally toxic that I feel it cannot be trusted to govern the state. I hope that you will survive the next election and play a part in remaking it, should the party’s dark forces permit. Labour’s internal battles, though certainly as bitter, are at least more open and fraternal and to that extent more honourable.
November 10, 2023
He would be firing one of the very few conservatives in the house. It would be foolish to do so.
November 10, 2023
Dear SirJohn,
The other feature of attacks on Mrs Braverman, as on Mr Raab, Mr Johnson and Dame Priti, is their reliance on the Ministerial Code. This is not some time-honoured constitutional rule to govern the relations between Government and Parliament. It is a malign relic of the coalition government, thrown together by civil servants in 2010 to bring some order to relations between ministers of different parties.
Anyone who reads the Code in full, as I have done, will surely conclude that its main function is to hogtie ministers and to protect senior civil servants from
policy squabbles within government. It should have been swept away along with the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. The only good bits, such as avoiding conflicts of interest, are perfectly obvious.
If and when Labour gets in, I hope that Sir Keir, having ruthlessly exploited the Code to harass ministers, will have the good sense and courage to abolish it. A pity that the Conservatives did not.
November 10, 2023
Yes, the Ministerial Code, whose clauses cannot be legally defined, is indeed an HR device to give civil servants power over ministers. Think of the hilariously Orwellian title, Director General of Propriety and Ethics, held first by Sue Gray and then by Helen MacNamara. Those are the sorts of women who now control Cabinet Appointments.
November 10, 2023
I agree with you Sir John,
Option 1.
November 10, 2023
Agreed.
November 10, 2023
I somehow think that Sunak will keep his powder dry until at least next Wednesday.
It is rumoured that the government is going to lose the Rwanda action in the Supreme Court which would give him the opportunity ( more of an excuse) to sack Suella, blaming her for the loss.
If that happens he will have a real dilemma. Does he abandon Rwanda in which he has invested so much political capital ? If he does, he will have no way of dealing with the boats.
The only solution to preserve the scheme will be to leave the ECHR, a solution of which Suella is a prominent supporter. But are there too many woke, leftie, Liberal Conservative MPs to get it through the house ?
Perhaps our host could give us his thoughts on it ?
November 12, 2023
That timing of the Supreme Court decision on the Rwanda policy adds another spiky dimension affecting why or whether the PM decides what action he could take to avoid exposing himself as even worse. The illegal boats are the target. The Home Secretary is not the bullās eye, but the leading force in hitting it.
The government losing doesnāt contribute to the PM having an excuse for sacking the Home Secretary. Sacking her just before such a government win reflects on him as having bad judgement again. Sacking her just after would be an impulsive reaction of wild blame after dithering shakily before. Either way, heās a double loser, unfit for office.
November 10, 2023
I see it being reported that the likes of the Royal British Legion and senior military personnel are criticising the Home Secretary’s position, but groups such as the EDL and Britain First are endorsing her (and not for the first time).
I think that says all that needs to be said about her views.
November 10, 2023
Would this article have survived intact or even at all if it had been vetted by No 10 which is my understanding of how the Tory party would normally proceed with regard to statements to the press by a government minister? Apart from unsurprisingly stirring up a hornet’s nest, does this article achieve anything?
November 11, 2023
Forgetting the many millions of voters who agree with her Peter.
I’m sad you try to sssert that only the groups you mention support the Home Secretary.
A cheap divisive slur.
November 11, 2023
According to YouGov, 18% of UK adults have a favourable opinion of Braverman and 57% do not, with 26% don’t knows.
I think she is perfectly capable of creating division all on her own. She certainly doesn’t need my help in that regard.
November 10, 2023
I assume the media will use wise judgement and not show any activity to do with the protests, after all what do they expect the UK to do about Palestine?
November 10, 2023
Braverman is an ineffective minister and yet Sunak cannot sack her whilst he waits and sees whether the demonstrations about other matters mar Remembrance Day for his position would be untenable if he acted against her and she was right after all. He seemingly does not want to back her in a fulsome manner so while he waits he will look weak and ineffective but then he is.
Braverman’s new tendency to shoot her mouth off is cover for her non-delivery perhaps?
As a compromise, could Sunak and Braverman both resign whilst writing nice letters to each other about what a success they have been?
November 10, 2023
I want to comment on what Suella Braverman has called a ‘hate march’ (though that applies to some marchers) which I would rather call a march/protest of morons. Hamas has a long record of starting hostilities against Israel, inaccurately firing a number of missiles at Israel and then Israel firing many more in return, bringing grief to people in Gaza and nothing more. Thereafter regularly a few months later Hamas started their missile firing hostilities again with the same results. One would think after a time or two Hamas would realise this wasn’t worth doing because the only result was death and destruction for their own people. So assuredly Hamas knew when they killed over 1,400 people in Israel and seized over 200 hostages, the result would just be massive destruction and deaths of their own people. Israel had no choice over this because in their democracy the people wanted it and would not forgive a government allowing this to happen again as is the established habit of Hamas. Indeed any country (as the U.S.A. did re 9/11) would react massively to such carnage.
So how can reasonable people demonstrate in support of a nation now holding hostages (including foreign hostages) governed by the worst government in the world, even worse than North Korea? Even North Korea does not provoke other countries to destroy the property and kill the inhabitants of their own country.
What is needed in Gaza is a people’s insurrection as in Eastern European countries in 1989 or the Arab Spring to overthrow their unconscionable Hamas government.
November 10, 2023
This Protest March on Armistice Day can be stopped if wanted.
Second posting of this comment.
November 11, 2023
Suella Braverman has run into trouble (especially with snooty people) because she is talented and unconventional like Boris Johnson and indeed in his day John Redwood (which Minister other than John sent unneeded money back to the Treasury or refused to sign documents written in a language, Welsh, he was not familiar with?- I was impressed!).
I like Suella speaking the truth that nobody else in Parliament has dared to do that some people sleep on the streets as a ‘lifestyle choice’. Notoriously many refuse to leave the streets for other accommodation when offered – so campaigns to house the homeless generally fail even when resources are devoted to it.
I particularly like Suella publicly criticising the failings of those (like the Police) rather than always speaking up for she is responsible for. When I was a Councillor long ago the consensus view was (and still is) Councillors should not publicly criticise Council Officers and anybody paid to work in any outside body they represented the Council on. That is the wrong attitude. Councillors and Ministers are the representatives of the people rather than of public employees. Well done, Suella We need more independent thinkers like her instead of fashionable consensus followers in politics. We also need people in politics like Suella who (to quote a now deceased Conservative Councillor colleague of mine) ‘say what they mean and mean what they say’.
November 11, 2023
Geoffrey, it was pleasing to read your post as I agree with every word.
If Sunak sends Suella to the back benches, it will be yet another nail in the coffin of the Conservative election campaign.
There is no doubt that the vast majority of the 85% of voters who are white, Anglo-Saxon, do not want to see Hamas apologists and their useful idiot followers demonstrating this weekend. It is disrespectful and damaging to race and religious relationships and the effort and expense needed to try and keep the peace is out of all proportion.
It is our country, so why are we not listened to about this, and so many other political issues ?
In particular, I mean, of course, taking full advantage of Brexit and ending mass immigration.
November 11, 2023
If the disgraceful supporters of baby-burners and granny-rapers are allowed to sully the almost sacred events of Sunday morning, we will have our answer, won’t we? So the lady cannot be sacked before Sunday afternoon at the very earliest or Rishi would be the one in the toaster.
November 11, 2023
I don’t have a problem with what she said. She was quite right …. the police, particularly the MET, do act in a partisan manner with left-wing Eco activists and Muslim extremists/Palestinian supporters given a “free pass” or very lenient treatment when compared to others (eg the Sarah Everard vigil, the marchers against the Covid Tyranny.)
What I have a problem with is that she doesn’t DO anything about it.
November 11, 2023
The old media are very keen to whip up a storm about Suella Braverman ‘defying’ Rishi Sunak but all from within a teacup.āThe Home Secretary is their biggest target since Boris Johnson.
Perhaps the media are directed to do this by those who consider Sunak their temporary stand-in Prime Minister and want Braverman weakened so their preferred ‘protĆ©gĆ©’ wins in time.
November 12, 2023
Preferred protegee.
Did Mrs May ask Cameron’s permission before she attacked the police in a most disagreeable way and told them not to stop and search? This cost many lives.
November 11, 2023
I was wondering how long it would be before the term ‘far right’ would be invoked to deflect attention away from the true hate-mongers, anti-Semites and bigots as opposed to those who simply choose to express an opinion the fascist Left disagree
November 11, 2023
The pro Palestinian demos are supporting the most dreadful terrorist attack on Jews since WW2 and we know the full extent of the horrors. France and Germany banned those marches. Its NOT free speech its intimidation by groups pushed by Russia and Iran.
If they had to go ahead they should have been directed to a park and kettled well away from any British ceremony. Someone should be open about how vile the attack was and how Israel is putting soldiers into harms way so that they dont harm civilians. A couple of planks on the march said they doubted the attack on Israel even happened. OMG!
November 11, 2023
Rather ironic that those who support these protests claim it is a right to do so yet apparently it is a crime to say anything against them. What is wrong with our country these days?
November 11, 2023
I am disappointed and outraged that a few Right of Centre morons have protested in London with some violent intent today. They should have known better and stayed away.
I read that around 100 have been arrested for being “likely to cause a breach of the peace.”
That would imply that they had committed no offence whatsoever before they were arrested. Rather like the women arrested at the Sarah Everard protest.
By contrast, it seems, no Hamas supporters with hate posters or chanting violent threats against Israel seem to have been detained in the main march. I wonder why not ?
As for free speech, I see that the Times website has banned all comments today, on any topic. I wonder why ?
At least we are free to comment here and on the Telegraph site.
November 11, 2023
It is good to see a Home Secretary who is fearless in her opinions about what is best for the country and, as here, she reflects the views of many, and probably most, of us. I find her very articulate and I always find myself agreeing with her. She is showing the way forward on immigration. It may take time, but she is especially well equipped to deal with the issue. I wish we had a few more like her.
November 11, 2023
Itās a shame clown emojis canāt be posted here. Not just in response to this comment but to most of the other demented comments.
November 19, 2023
šš¤” oh yes they can ā¦
November 19, 2023
No, they canāt. Sorry.