Fantastic.

[Celerity]

Link to tweet

[Soph0571]

1. Good one! nt

[3Hotdogs]

2. Sorry. Needs a bit of context for us fooriners.

Who dat with the shovel?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. David Cameron, PM 2010-16, caught in a scandal about lobbying for a dodgy and failed finance firm

What is the Greensill lobbying scandal and who is involved?

Set up by the Australian financier Lex Greensill, the firm specialises in supply-chain finance, which settles business bills immediately for a fee, assisting with the issue of late payments. Greensill began working with the NHS as part of Citibank in 2012, but then set up his own firm. This collapsed in March.

How is David Cameron involved?
Cameron was prime minister when Greensill started to seek government work, although the Australian was reportedly first brought in by Jeremy Heywood, who was cabinet secretary at the time. But in 2016, after leaving office, Cameron became an adviser to Greensill Capital. He was given share options reportedly worth tens of millions of pounds.

What did Cameron do?
Last year he sent “multiple” texts to Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and “informally” phoned two other Treasury ministers, asking for Greensill Capital to get the largest possible allocation of government-backed loans under the Covid corporate financing facility, or CCFF. He also lobbied a No 10 aide, and in 2019 took Greensill to a “private drink” with Matt Hancock, the health secretary.

What was the government response?
Text replies from Sunak in 2019, released after a freedom of information request, show that in April last year the chancellor told Cameron he had “pushed the team” in the Treasury to see if he could arrange full access to CCFF loans. Other released documents show Treasury officials had a series of meetings with Greensill Capital but eventually refused it access to the CCFF. The company was later accredited to the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS), handing it the ability to offer government-backed loans of up to £50m.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/14/what-is-greensill-lobbying-scandal-who-involved

[3Hotdogs]

4. Thanks.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. When I saw it, I laughed, but thought "there'll be complaints"

I expect the Mail etc. will declare it an outrage.

We seem to be in "enforced grief". After all the complaints about the BBC broadcasting nothing but Phil tributes for 12 hours (all national radio stations had the same programming, BBC2 TV had the BBC1 Phil progs, and BBC4 was replaced with a "DofE died" static display), we now find some government employees were expected to have a spontaneous, unpaid, outpouring of grief:

Census staff in England and Wales were forced to take unpaid leave when Prince Philip died, after being told their work would halt out of respect for the Duke of Edinburgh but they would have to “make up their hours”.

Thousands of temporary workers at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), many earning just over £10 an hour, were told in an email they should stop working immediately and go home.

The email sent to field staff read: “Following the sad news of the death of HRH the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in line with civil service protocol we are recalling all staff from the field with immediate effect. Please return home. Some pre-planned activity can continue.”

On the question of whether staff would be paid, employees were told to “make up” their hours for the week over the next few days. They were advised that if they were unable to do this they should speak to their manager.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/15/census-staff-forced-take-unpaid-leave-death-prince-philip

I now dread the weeks after the queen dies. What'll it be - government vehicles roaming Labour-voting neighbourhoods with placards reading "why aren't you crying, you traitors?"

[Emrys]

6. Cancelled subscriptions all round from enraged gammon Private Eye readers,

treble G&Ts all round for Hislop and his editorial team.

If I didn't already have a subscription, I'd take one out.

[Celerity]

8. Spiggy Topes and The Turds can perform for free at the celebratory soiree

treble G&Ts all round for Hislop and his editorial team

[Layzeebeaver]

7. put the decrepit old geezer in the ground and be done with it.

Even if we assume that god actually did give Libby the gift of ruling over all the Britons, Phil has no claim to it - he just married into the scheme.

And... if god DID bless little libby with the power to rule, it seems that "man" took it away not too soon after.

Down with the royals, and down with all BBC ratings for covering any of this Phil-uneral.