Pitch for leader ?

I think the online course was brought in during Covid and has so far remained.

MayBee70 perhaps read Ian Dunt on How Westminster works…. It’s more complicated than you might think.

ronib

Growstuff how very little detail we have, wouldn’t you agree?

So we just forget it then? Or do we find out what really happened? Imo if there was a security risk it would have been the civil service pointing it out to Braverman not Braverman not Braverman asking for them to change how the matter was dealt with.

ronib

Growstuff how very little detail we have, wouldn’t you agree?

Indeed! But what is there to dispute?

It would appear that Braverman was caught speeding and, like many other people, was offered the choice of paying the fine or doing the course.

The claim is that she asked civil servants to investigate whether she could do the course one-to-one. I have no idea whether she found the timing of the course inconvenient or whether she wanted to remain anonymous.

If it's true she asked civil servants to investigate, surely she was asking them to do something which wasn't their job. The option of a one-to-one course isn't available to anybody else, so the question remains why she thought she was worthy of special treatment.

The only issue is whether the claim is true.

Maybe it's not world-shattering, but given Sunak's pledge, it's not a good look.

GrannyGravy13

I think the online course was brought in during Covid and has so far remained.

That's my impression too.

Well when I worked as a PA to a director, I covered for a lot worse than asking about a speed awareness course! Say no more….

I did an online one a few weeks ago. First speeding offence in 50 years driving. 34 in a 30. My family thought it was hilarious as they tell me I drive too slowly!!

I believe they are doing away with the classroom based ones - I could not get anything in my county for months and you only have a certain time in which to do your course. I complained and was told my other option was to take the points and fine.

When my husband did a classroom based one the woman next to him said she was doing it for her husband as he had so many points already. A woman in our village recently got one whilst driving her Dad’s car as he was very ill. By the time the letter came through he had passed away so she told them he was driving so she didn’t have to do the test or take the points.very wrong.

ronib

Well when I worked as a PA to a director, I covered for a lot worse than asking about a speed awareness course! Say no more….

So you willingly helped someone to break the law? Are you proud of that? Is that what makes a supporter of this government? Well, everyone breaks the law so that’s ok then. Was your boss responsible for the implementation of the rules that he/she wanted to break?

MayBee70 no of course it was not about breaking the law. You have had a bit of a knee jerk reaction to my comment?
More about having to lie to a wife about where her husband was spending the day. Not for me to break up a family with three small children…. Actually the responsibility of my ex boss to explain to his wife!
I didn’t last long in the high powered world of publishing and chose to be a stay at home mother….

And yet you are happy to make excuses for Braverman?

No - not excuses. Am more worried about the integrity of the British civil service than SB having just read about the evacuation of Afghanistan.
You do remember Chris Huhne, Vicky Pryce and a Labour mp also involved in speeding offences?

ronib

No - not excuses. Am more worried about the integrity of the British civil service than SB having just read about the evacuation of Afghanistan.
You do remember Chris Huhne, Vicky Pryce and a Labour mp also involved in speeding offences?

Are you sure you're reading the same book that I did, ronib?

Dunt doesn't cast doubts on the integrity of the British civil service, he highlights to failings of the government in having no plans for the evacuation, even though we knew it would be happening at some time, and the way that civil servants were left to struggle with complete lack of direction... I seem to recall that a key Secretary of State was sunning himself on a beach somewhere and had no intention of rushing back to take charge...

And I really don't see what Huhne and Price have to do with this current 'affair'. Nor whatever Labour MP you are talking about. Whataboutery is so utterly pointless.

ronib

No - not excuses. Am more worried about the integrity of the British civil service than SB having just read about the evacuation of Afghanistan.
You do remember Chris Huhne, Vicky Pryce and a Labour mp also involved in speeding offences?

What's the integrity of the civil service got to do with this case?

According to all the reports I've read, the civil service did act with integrity. They're not supposed to act for ministers in their personal life so, when asked, they didn't give any "advice" about the speeding conviction.

I had a think about this and hmm, I can see that well known people including politicians, actors etc would want not to be in a group, it would be humiliating in a way that any of us wouldn't find it to be. The only thing for her to do tho is take the fine and the points.

I didn’t think that civil servants were supposed to give details of their interactions with government ministers. So how exactly did this amazing news get into the public domain? There used to be a need for absolute confidentiality… well that’s in the past?
Suella Braverman isn’t the first Solicitor General to have broken the speed limit with Harriet Harman pleading guilty to speeding at 99 mph in 70 mph limit.
Strange times.

Where have you got the information from that says that civil servants broke a confidentiality clause and released these details ronib, I can’t find that reported anywhere?

You are missing the point about this. MPs are as likely as anybody else to get caught speeding. You would expect them to do what we would do - suck it up, accept responsibility, pay the fine, attend awareness trading or take the points - without asking anybody else to keep what they have done under the radar and do favours for them. It’s abuse of the privilege of ministerial office to do that. There is no excuse, she was behaving like an entitled idiot.

Casdon the point is how did this information come into the public domain? SB is hardly likely to have divulged it. So who else did? What was the motivation in the disclosure?

ronib

Casdon the point is how did this information come into the public domain? SB is hardly likely to have divulged it. So who else did? What was the motivation in the disclosure?

These are some of the possibilities:
Her political aide
Another minister
A civil servant
A staff member from the speed awareness course organisers
A friend
A member of her family.
There are no doubt other possible sources too, it could be anybody who knew about it, so I’ll ask you again, where have you got the information from that a civil servant was responsible?

Casdon but how since there were presumably only two people in the room- SB and unknown civil servant - could they have known about the specific request for information? Do you really think a friend, husband, political adviser, a member of her family etc were likely to leak information? Or maybe the leak occurred when the unknown civil servant reported what was thought to be a breach to the appropriate Human Resources official, another civil servant. Perhaps an enquiry will clarify.

ronib

Casdon but how since there were presumably only two people in the room- SB and unknown civil servant - could they have known about the specific request for information? Do you really think a friend, husband, political adviser, a member of her family etc were likely to leak information? Or maybe the leak occurred when the unknown civil servant reported what was thought to be a breach to the appropriate Human Resources official, another civil servant. Perhaps an enquiry will clarify.

Every article I have read says that the civil servants said they would not deal with this for her, so she used a political advisor, who tried but failed. You just can’t make accusations about people with no evidence ronib.

It could be any of the people I have mentioned, or somebody else. Who knows, maybe she sounded off about her frustrations in the Conmons bar, to her hairdresser, we just don’t know.

Oreo

I had a think about this and hmm, I can see that well known people including politicians, actors etc would want not to be in a group, it would be humiliating in a way that any of us wouldn't find it to be. The only thing for her to do tho is take the fine and the points.

That's precisely what she should have done in the first place. There would have been a bit of tutting, but then it would quickly have been forgotten.

There’s a clear security information risk therefore and it needs addressing. I understand the emotion surrounding this situation but the way information has been leaked to the press does need an investigation.

I doubt very much that a seasoned politician would divulge sensitive information to her hairdresser . Unless her office has been bugged? It does happen.

I see tonight that No.10 are saying that they have full confidence in Braverman. Guess that's it for her then.

I think that we have to accept that, for some reason, ronib has a deep dislike of the civil service and leave her to get on with it. 😟

Daisymae

I see tonight that No.10 are saying that they have full confidence in Braverman. Guess that's it for her then.

Crikey. Who are they going to find who’s nasty enough to implement their Rwanda plan? They’re running out of likely candidates. Might have to bring back a disgraced MP from the back benches.