UKH

To be elected this time

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53422010

I'm not sure the alternative is much better, however.

In reply to 

I see Larry is on it

https://twitter.com/Number10cat/status/1283441908036100102?s=19

In reply to MG:

Great news... it's about time we had some.

In reply to Offwidth:

a man who supported "Leave Means Leave" - quite impartial!

In reply to wercat:

I'd rather have him than someone that would probably inadvertently outsource the country's security to a chipshop in Lewisham.

In reply to Alkis:

I'm not sure that it is a materially better outcome though

In reply to MG:

One can only assume the principal objective of any 'Intelligence' committee with Grayling on is to seek out some.

In reply to MG:

Now Julian Lewis has had the whip withdrawn....Interesting.

In reply to MG:

Tory civil war rumbling on?

In reply to MG:

I hate politicians. Let's eat them.

In reply to Welsh Kate:

Yes. Although having read his wiki page he is a)quite well qualified b) odd person to pick a fight with give his Euroscepticism.

In reply to wercat:

I'm pretty happy with this outcome.

The government tried to pick a stooge to do their bidding and no doubt obscure/bury the russia report.

This bloke, whilst he may be a nutty eurosceptic, has together with opposition party members taken control of a committee away from this unaccountable government.

Finally I feel that there are adults in charge of something even if it is just one committee

The withdrawal of the whip is just an unbelievably stupid move by Johnson/Cummings and will backfire spectacularly

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Agree, probably the best outcome given the circumstances.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

I agree, i have no idea why they withdrew the whip. Yes he went against their wishes, but in punishing him they also threw away a conservative majority within the committee, wierd.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

oh the delicious irony of Failing Grayling losing a rigged election. 

In reply to Tigger:

They're so blinded by their fanaticism that they cripple themselves with their own stupidity.

In reply to Tigger:

Because Cummings hates the ERG and vice versa. 

Also given that he would have only been put on that committee after saying he would support Grayling it does mark him as rather unreliable and unwhippable.

In reply to Tigger:

Yes. My only remaining concern is that the report wasn't delayed by the election, it was delayed by Johnson/no.10/cummings not signing it off in the usual timescale thus pushing it beyond the election. 

What's to stop them refusing to sign it off again? (until it's redacted beyond use)

In reply to wercat:

You do realise it's possible to be a member of the ERG and still be qualified for the job and be capable of doing it?  Grayling is dangerously useless and was a blatant and willing No 10 stooge, and the role is a pretty important one for the UK. As others say above, how do you lose an impossible to lose election... take the most incompetant MP available and apply Boris levels of hubris?!

I say this despite agreeing with very little of his politics. He is interestingly the only MP who doesn't answer constituency emails.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Lewis

In reply to Offwidth:

He has gone up in my estimation by not answering emails. A sensible what is the best use of my time practise.An MP must be inundated with them so I bet most do not bother reading them anyway.

I bet the guy is not bothered about losing the whip anyway.

The whole thing is fascinating as it was predicted a week or so ago that Grayling was not going to win.

In reply to MG:There had been rumblings this would had happen so No10 tried to fix it... Failing has a bad smell of ineptitude and everyone knows it.  I don't agree with Lewis on much but he did the right thing here

In reply to MG:

I think Lewis is clearly better than Grayling. Whatever his politics, which aren't really relevant as regards this particular appointment, he at least appears to have some experience in defence and a record of at least not being a blithering ideological incompetent (i.e. Grayling's hallmarks).

In reply to Offwidth:

he's gone up in my estimation by risking expulsion from the parliamentary conservatives over this

my problem with the ERG is motivation and intent rather than incompetence

In reply to Offwidth:

The Venn diagram of being a Brexit enthusiast and being incompetent in government does seem to be pretty close to a circle, but he does seem to be independent of thought. Though you could pop a blue rosette on a turd and it would do a better job than Grayling. 
 

Cummings and Boris seem terrible at party management. It normally takes 4 years for a government to seem this jaded, scandal ridden, corrupt and out of ideas. 

In reply to George Ormerod:

To be fair, you could pick the government out of a hat from the general population and they'd be more competent than this bunch.

In reply to George Ormerod:

I do love the way it's become normal to refer to the Westminster government as "The Johnson-Cummings" government, though perhaps it should be the other way round. I suppose we have a precedent in William n'Mary.

In reply to Andy Long:

I'm pretty sure who's running the shit show. And it's not Johnson.

Removing the whip is straight from the Cummings toolbox.

In reply to captain paranoia:

Everything Cumming's has touched has turned to shit.  Meanwhile the unfit for purpose civil service saved the economy from immediate collapse - https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2020/07/adults-room

Looks like running the government is a bit more tricky than writing over-long pseuds corner like blog posts.  Either that, or he's still fooling us all at his 4D game of chess.

In reply to George Ormerod:

Or they're especially good, if one is in another political party? There's quite a lot to make political capital from.

In reply to bouldery bits:

Terese Coffey could solve world hunger, great idea! 

In reply to Trevers:

There's something to be said for Athenian sortition, by which government was formed by random selection from the population.

In reply to captain paranoia:

Then we could all decide who gets ostracised to parts abroad too. That might be a vote Chris Grayling could win