The government’s chief whip Andrew Mitchell (the PM’s midfield enforcer) has sworn at several policemen and called them something far too class conscious for a representative of a ‘Posh’ government full of wealthy former public schoolboys.
All such modern media problems are compromised by the politics of the newspapers in the run-up to publication of Lord Justice Leveson’s report. The paper leading the charge on Mitchell and the police is The Sun and their relations with the Police have already been the subject of much conversational and legal scrutiny.
Mitchell’s careless and contemptuous clanger is a terrible goal for the government to concede and there might well still be a sending off which the increasingly knocked-about PM can ill-afford.
One of the more eye-catching moves in David Cameron’s reshuffle of early September was the removal of Justine Greening as Transport Secretary. She was long known to be an opponent of the highly controversial ‘Third Runway’ at Heathrow – and this is an issue which has long divided the Conservative party (and indeed, others.)
In Kremlinology, it is also an issue which clearly divides the PM from some of the more obvious rivals inside his own party, notably Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. ‘BoJo’ enjoyed a PR filled Olympics and is another longtime opponent of the new runway at Heathrow. He, instead favours a revival of the old interwar project to build a wholesale new airport off the North Kent coast in the Thames Estuary. Nowadays this idea is known as ‘Boris Island.’
Updated: 6th August 2014. Boris Johnson the mayor of London announces he plans to return to parliament as an MP.
Updated – 13th January 2015: My colleague Ann Telnaeshas also had a go since Ryan’s elevation to Speaker of the House in the US Congress. Typically, it’s very good, in my estimation.
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The third in line to the throne has been caught with his pants down playing mixed billiards in Las Vegas. Film director Tony Scott of Top Gun fame has also died.
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The UK Standard Chartered Bank has paid a fine of $340 (£200m) to one US regulator for a persistent period of undisclosed trading which has been linked to businesses in Iran. That country is subject to some controversial economic and business sanctions from the international community led by the United States.
The complicated business situation for ‘universal global banks’ is also complicated by the convention to have most financial transactions denominated in US dollars and so, subject to US law and financial licensing. Difficult territory in a country where Iran is persistently a hot topic for discussion.
The story touches once more upon the problems of global business and national jurisdictions and the conflict between them. These issues have been much in evidence since the start of the global recession, the revelations about the insolvency of the finance houses and afterwards, of their associated governments.
Great success for British athletes at The London 2012 Olympic Games. This drawing on a speedy deadline after one Saturday in which twelve Brits alone topped the podium.
Congratulations to Greg Rutherford (long jump), Mo Farah (10,000 metres), Jessica Ennis (heptathlon), Dani King, Jo Rowsell, and Laura Trott (Women’s team pursuit). Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland (women’s lightweight double sculls) Pete Reed, Andy Gregory and Tom James, and Andy Triggs-Hodge (men’s four).
