ChatterBank1 min ago
Do You Think Ed Davey Will Lose His Seat Against The Former Post Mistress Standing Against Him At The General Election?
Did Alan Bates recall correctly that Davey would not meet him? Why would he not, as a government minister (Post Office) at least set upon a trail of investigation eg Is there another sub PM in the UK who has the same problem? Make it a topic for conversation and investigation - as it finally now is.
Answers
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Here's the missing link:
https:/
Who knows? Sometimes this sort of candidate wins. Most famously Martin Bell versus Neil Hamilton of course. And there was that doctor in Wyre Forest. Although that wasn't personal
Ed Davey is being made a bit of a scapegoat here. Writing in the Times the other week Danny Finkelstein called on the leader of the LibDems to resign, not
He wrote: "Ed Davey was clearly told things that were not true. As Post Office minister he was a victim of the cover-up much more than the perpetrator. He certainly failed to ask the right questions even when it became obvious that questions should be asked. But he was not alone in that. So it would be absurd, almost obscene, for him to resign because he is uniquely culpable. I am not suggesting that. I am suggesting he resigns as an act of leadership."
The slight problem I'd have with that is that he'd be resigning from a position he didn't hold at the time: he's not even in government. And of course it would probably mean people associated more unfairly with the scandal. Peter Mandelson resigned unnecessary once and I'm not sure it helped anyone
This is the list of Government ministers in charge of the Post Office from June 2009 to the present day:
Anthony Young, 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010, Labour
Ed Davey, 20 May 2010 – 3 February 2012, Lib Dem under a Tory PM
Norman Lamb, 3 February 2012 – 4 September 2012, Lib Dem under a Tory PM
Jo Swinson, 4 September 2012 – 8 May 2015, Lib Dem under a Tory PM
Anna Soubry, 11 May 2015 – 15 July 2016, Conservative
Margot James. 17 July 2016 – 9 January 2018, Conservative
Andrew Griffiths, 9 January 2018 – 13 July 2018, Conservative
Kelly Tolhurst, 19 July 2018 – 13 February 2020, Conservative
Paul Scully, 13 February 2020 – 8 July 2022, Conservative
Jane Hunt, 8 July 2022 – 8 September 2022, Conservative
Dean Russell, 20 September 2022 – 27 October 2022, Conservative
Kevin Hollinrake, 27 October 2022 to date, Conservative
All of them are culpable to some extent. For example, Kelly Tolhurst was the minister when Paula Vennells got the CBE. As Alan Bates said in an interview I heard a week or two ago, none of them were any better or worse than any other - the problem was that the Government was on the Post Office's side. If anyone is more culpable than any other then it is the more recent ones, simply because they knew more ...
yes, I can't think why anyone would choose to point the finger at a member of a minority party when there are so many possible scapegoats!🙂
As I understood, Davey did meet him a few months later? But the real problem, as stated, is that the government was on the side of PO management, not PO staff; they all loved the idea of lashing out money on big IT projects to create a wonderful new world (not necessarily one in which subpostmasters would have had any place) and were automatically distrustful of anyone who doub ted their wisdom.
The problem could be that the constituency loses a flawed, but still experienced MP by by voting with their emotions, and getting someone who has been unfairly treated, but still knows nothing whatsoever about what being an MP involves.
This kind of situation, where emotions win over practicality, are a disaster waiting to happen.
Personally I would ban anyone without a minimum of five years experience at senior local government level from standing as a prospective MP.
That would prevent this sort of nonsense fro occurring.
Mr Davey's constituents may feel that he no longer has their trust, or the right to represent them.
But that does not mean replacing them with someone with absolutely no idea what they are doing.
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