Sunday 3 December 2017

Why Damian Green might be more handy than we thought...


In these times of political doom and gloom, there is at least some joy to be found with the ongoing saga of Damian Green and his 'extreme' porn. Tory MPs have been quick to defend Damian Green's right to view beastiality, necrophilia or material that would cause physical damage, which might come as little surprise given their views on animal sentience, their disregard of the 120,000 deaths linked to their policies, and their ongoing 'grave and systematic abuse' (according to the UN) on the disabled. With Damian Green though, we might see a few bonus resignations...

The story begins back in 2008, when Damian Green was Shadow Minister for Immigration. Green was arrested by the police under suspicion of 'conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office' after a series of politically 'embarrassing' leaks about the then Labour government. Christopher Galley, a junior Home Office civil servant, later claimed responsibility for leaking the documents and Green promptly sacked him. However, during the the police raid, thousands of pornographic images were apparently discovered on Damian Green's work computer. There were concerns at the time of the 'extreme' nature of these files but, as they were classified as legal (although weeks later, a change in law would redefine them as illegal), Damian Green was able to continue in his role and subsequently became Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and he currently holds the post of First Secretary of State.

Earlier this year, a Tory 'sleaze list' was leaked and Damian Green apparently featured on this list as 'Ashley Madison, handsy at parties'. A Tory activist then claimed Green had made inappropriate advances on her, and former police officers also came forward with allegations of the thousands of pornographic images that had been found on his computer. Damian Green strenuously denied the claims. Unfortunately for Green, he is now under investigation, although (fortunately for Green) we might not see the final report according to Theresa May. 

Despite Green being under investigation, Theresa May clearly doesn't want to sack her right-hand man, as she chose him to cover for her last week during PMQs (while she was busy promoting war in the Middle East). At this point we should also not forget that Theresa May has so far done little to discipline those on the Tory sleaze list, or her complicity with child abuse (specifically the 114 files linking MPs and peers to child abuse that she intentionally ignored/lost/hid/buried). 
  
David Davis gallantly came to Green's defence this week and threatened to resign if Damian Green is forced out. David Davis was tasked with one of the most important jobs in recent times — negotiating the future of the UK after the Brexit referendum and he has had ample opportunity in his career to make a more noble political stand. Having made noticeably little progress over the past 16 months, and potentially in contempt of parliament, some might suspect the real reason for his threat to resign is not to defend Damian Green's right to watch extreme porn at work. Green will almost certainly be gone soon, and this way Davis gets to resign from his post for someone else's bad behaviour (and not his own incompetence). 
  
Nadine Dorries has also stepped up her defence of Green. She says that her interns log into her computer using her login details, therefore directly admitting to allowing interns access to confidential documents. This casual breach of security is a sackable offence in many occupations, and one would expect also for MPs. 

Damian Green must resign for misconduct and the public deserve to see the findings of his investigation. However, with the departure of Green, David Davis and Nadine Dorries (and any other MPs who defend the right to view 'extreme' images at work) should also resign — he might actually be more handy than we thought...



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