Britain's official diplomatic position "Russia should go away and shut up"!

"Russia should go away and shut up". This is now the official UK government position as outlined by the Tory defence secretary Gavin Williamson in a rambling speech that has been described as "one of the least impressive speeches ever delivered by a government minister".

Incredibly this childish playground taunt style "diplomacy" is being allowed to stand as Britain's official stance because Theresa May is far too weak and incompetent to slap it down.

After days of savaging @jeremycorbyn for his calm evidence-seeking approach to the Salisbury chemical weapons attack, the actual Tory defence minister has issued this unbelievably childish playground taunt. pic.twitter.com/um6OuaLzbQ

— Tom (AAV) (@Angry_Voice) March 15, 2018

As long as Theresa May refuses to disown these ridiculous comments Williamson's bizarrely childish taunt is being allowed to stand as the UK's official position!

Given that Williamson came across as a frightened child-like figure, it's no surprise that the Tories have been trying to keep him out of the limelight since Theresa May unexpectedly promoted him way beyond his qualifications or experience to the role of defence secretary. And the horrified reaction of the Tory party to this unexpected promotion makes a lot more sense now that we've seen this.

One of the oddest things about Williamson's taunt is that it's just a few weeks since the Tories auctioned off direct access to him to the wife of a former Putin government minister.

One wonders whether he'll be telling Lubov Chernukhim to "go away and shut up" after taking £30,000 of her cash to buy access to him?

In another part of the speech Williamson accused Russia of "ripping up the international rule book", which is an accusation that would carry a lot more weight if the UK government actually complied with the Chemical Weapons Convention to provide samples of the nerve agent as is required by international law.

It's perplexing how Russians are supposed to "go away and shut up" immediately after they ask the UK government to comply with international law and provide samples of the chemical weapon agent under the framework of the Chemical Weapons Convention, but they're welcomed with open arms if they've got thirty grand or so to lob into Tory party coffers.

It's almost as if Williamson and his Tory mates are a bunch of intellectually stunted money-obsessed hypocrites who resort to childish playground taunts when what is required is some serious adult diplomacy.

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Theresa May's response to Michael Fallon's resignation just got even worse

Theresa May's handling of the sex pest scandal has just got even worse!

It seems difficult to imagine a way that she could have topped sending Michael Fallon a love letter in response to his resignation as defence secretary over his indecent treatment of women, but within the space of a day she's found a way.

Theresa May has reacted to the scandal by promoting her chief whip (and personal ally) Gavin Williamson to Defence Secretary, and promoted his deputy Julian Smith to chief whip.

The Tory whips office should have come under immense scrutiny given the way they stand accused of using allegations of sexual misconduct by Tory MPs as we'll tell your wife" type blackmail material to ensure uncritical loyalty to the party.

If the accusations that the whips office use these kinds of blackmail tactics to ensure party loyalty stand true it explains a lot about why so many Tory MPs have continually refused to rebel against the party line, even when the tabled legislation was absolutely toxic (the rape clause, Bedroom Tax, refusing pay rises to emergency service workers after Grenfell Tower, condemning hundreds of thousands more kids to poverty ...).

Numerous Tory MPs have responded with dismay to Theresa May's decision to promote a personal ally instead of someone with more knowledge of the MoD. Several have pointed out that it would have made a lot more sense to promote a junior defence minister to such a critical role. Others have complained that this unwarranted promotion of a close personal ally rather than someone with greater experience has made Theresa May look even weaker than she already did before.

The former head of the UK army (and unelected peer) Richard Dannatt criticised the appointment saying that the decision to appoint such an inexperienced defence minister was all about Theresa May "bolstering her position within the cabinet".

Still, putting her personal self-interest above the best interests of the nation is hardly breaking new ground for someone as ruthlessly self-serving as Theresa May is it?

Few Tories have pointed out the indecency of handing promotions to her two top whips just one day after Lisa Nandy exposed her for having done nothing about accusations that the Tory whips office has a history of using allegations of sexual assaults in order to force loyalty from MPs. However several people have noted that May blasted the opportunity to appoint a woman as chief whip, which would at least have given the slightest impression that she now gives a damn.

At the time it seemed unlikely that Theresa May could top her decision to send Michael Fallon a gushing love letter instead of admonishing him for his unacceptable behaviour, but she's managed to make the whole situation even worse by putting her own self-interest first again, and picking a close personal ally to replace him as defence secretary, rather than somebody more qualified to do the job.

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The Tory defence minister Michael Fallon is a liar

The Tory defence minister Michael Fallon put on an absolutely woeful performance on the Marr Show on Sunday May 14th. He evaded questions, he made unfunded spending pledges, he revealed the latest Tory flagship policy to be just a load of empty spin, he resorted to the worst kind of dishonest gutter politics, and he outright lied to the British public about Tory cuts to the armed forces.

Fallon's lie

Fallon told his outrageous lie in order avoid admitting that the Tories broke their 2015 manifesto pledge that they would stop slashing away at the armed forces.

The manifesto commitment Andrew Marr tried to get Fallon to admit was "we will maintain the size of the regular armed services and not reduce the army to below 82,000" [source - page 77].

Since 2015 the Tories have reduced the army to 79,000.

The sneaky and evasive Fallon saw the trap coming and outright lied that the commitment was to increase the size of the army to 82,000 by 2020, rather than to not cut it to below 82,000. Just look at how brazenly he lies.

Michael Fallon telling an outright lie about the Tory 2015 manifesto pledge that they would stop slashing the size of the regular army. pic.twitter.com/f1fEqpKLEF

— Another Angry Voice (@Angry_Voice) May 14, 2017

Here's what the Tory manifesto actually said.

Anyone would think that such a huge and obvious lie from a government minister would have completely dominated the news agenda, especially given the scrutiny Labour politicians are subjected to for stuff like getting their numbers muddled up. But no! Hardly anyone in the mainstream press even picked up on the fact that the Tory defence minister told the British public outright lies about defence policy.

Look how he kept digging despite having the truth literally quote at him. pic.twitter.com/hw6JWWE46t

— Another Angry Voice (@Angry_Voice) May 14, 2017

Witness the way Fallon squirmed and lied, and maintained the fiction that the manifesto pledge was something else, even after Andrew Marr actually quoted it to him.

Just imagine the level of arrogant contempt necessary in order to carry on lying to the British public when you've had the truth actually directly quoted at you, and them. Everyone could see that he was lying, but he just carried on. It's excruciating to think that this guy is actually responsible for the British armed forces.

It's absolutely beyond me how anyone could have confidence in him to continue as defence secretary after such a brazen display of dishonesty. But then there are a lot of S*n, Daily Mail and Express readers out there aren't there?

More lamentable rubbish

Infographic on Fallon's dodgy expenses by Rachael Swindon.

Fallon's lie about the 2015  Tory manifesto commitment to stop slashing the armed forces to bits was far from the only deeply concerning thing he said.

When asked to explain where the government would find an extra £1 billion in their military funding pledge, he claimed that they'd do it "by growing the economy". When asked about the £7 billion black hole in the defence equipment budget Fallon replied by claiming that the government could raise the cash by selling off "some airfields".
So the mainstream media accuse Labour of "magic money tree" thinking over their fully-costed manifesto pledges, but Fallon can just reply with ridiculous platitudes about where the Tories are going to fund their manifesto commitments and resolve their own financial blundering, and nobody gives a damn.

Fallon repeatedly evaded answering questions about whether the UK's nuclear submarines are reliant on the outdated Windows XP operating system that is susceptible to hacks like the WannaCry ransomware attack that just hit the NHS.

Fallon admitted that the Tories flashy new policy on council houses is just empty spin, with no new money to commit whatever.

When Fallon tried to smear Jeremy Corbyn for talking to the IRA (at the same time as Margaret "we don't negotiate with terrorists" Thatcher was having her secret negotiations with the IRA) the Labour shadow defence minister Emily Thornberry hit him with the best sucker punch of the 2017 General Election campaign by highlighting his history of sucking up to the Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad.

Conclusion

The Tory defence minister outright lied to the British public about defence policy and he made an arse out of himself over and over again, yet millions will still vote Tory, and for this guy to keep slashing the armed forces, lying to the British public, botching army recruitment, farcically mismanaging the defence equipment budget, and now apparently selling off a load of our airfields on the cheap to whoever wants to stump up the cash (Saudi Arabia? Qatar? China?).

I guess having a blatantly incompetent and massively over-promoted buffoon in charge of our armed forces just a continuation of a longstanding British tradition though isn't it?

 Another Angry Voice  is a "Pay As You Feel" website. You can have access to all of my work for free, or you can choose to make a small donation to help me keep writing. The choice is entirely yours.

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