Jeremy Corbyn is a Socialist

I know this might seem a silly and obvious statement but I feel led by the Holy Spirit to make it. And I will capitalise it.

JEREMY CORBYN IS A SOCIALIST

 Jeremy Corbyn was never a threat to the Royal family. His own personal feelings about the Monarchy were not in the Labour Party manifesto.  He would have made a fine Prime Minister and rich and poor alike would have been blessed under his government. Hunting poor defenceless wildlings would have stayed banned,  and the Royal family might have had to find a nicer way to amuse themselves whilst on horseback,  i.e. polo games,  gymkhanas,  point to point races ect.  But apart from that and a fairer taxation system they had absolutely no reason whatsoever to fear Jeremy Corbyn.  I can't say the same about the current occupier of 10 Downing Street.

I am continuing to pray for this country and will be writing to Justin Welby. What a peril this country is now in! We need to ask God to help us, the Queen, whether you like it or not is our last barrier to a full blown dictatorship.

One of the worst days of my life

I don't need to say too much as the whole country is ringing with the sound of crying. I've been crying too, I keep bursting into tears, I feel absolutely gutted.

Of course the Tories cheated, they do it every time.  But some very stupid people voted for them too, poor people who will become their victims. Turkeys voting for Christmas.

Christmas isn't happening in our house.  It's not the season to be jolly, tralala. It's the time of terror. This government is now a dictatorship. I can't see any sign of hope on the horizon either.

I suppose God knows what He is doing. I certainly dont. I don't feel like praying but I have one prayer, one word only, "Help!" Britain is a terrifying place right now.  But somehow we must carry on, giving up hope is not an option.

OH! JEREMY CORBYN!

I wouldn't call myself a prolific reader, but I do enjoy reading, my favourite books are what most people call the Classics. Some of my favourite books are by Charles Dickens, I especially love his books because although Charles Dickens had a passionate hearts desire for social reform, his account of the life of young Jo the crossing sweeper moved me to tears the first time I read it,he also had a keen sense of humour.  Charles Dickens  makes me laugh and cry.  I have a wonderful collection of books, fact and fiction, from authors of many nationalities and eras. My favourite book of all time has to be a collection of books, The Holy Bible. I think the Bible is best read with a completely open mind,  without any motive of searching for the truth of the secrets of time and space, but as a book to be read in a quiet comfortable corner, for me that's outside on a sunny day surrounded by birdsong and comfortable cushions. It's hard to come to the Bible like that as there are so many terrible associations with this book, it's been used as a weapon by cruel hands and ignorant bigoted minds so often through the history of the last 2000 years.

I am not a great biblical scholar, I'm just a woman who has had quite a traumatic and interesting life. As a child I wanted to be a fairy dancer like Margot Fonteyne or a showjumper like Pat Smythe.  My life heros are so different now,  I still admire people,I still love people,  but I don't want to be anyone but myself any more. I'm not generally well liked,  not in Staffordshire where I live, in fact I know I'm pretty much thought of as a damned nuisance,  a conspiracy theorist,  a mental head case nutjob ect. But I've come to terms with who I am, I've been shaped by my life experiences and surroundings. I wish I wasn't so weepy and I wished I didn't have PTSD and have fits, but those things aren't my personality, those things are my trauma, my scars. I am never alone, I do feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, and when I'm too broken to feel His presence I always have good old Jon Anderson and Yes to remind me, Tales from Topographic Oceans is still my favourite recording and reminds me of my own beating heart in the great tapestry which God has woven and is still weaving.

Jeremy Corbyn. I really did not see him coming, and at first I thought he was too good to be true. The way I feel about him is as if Charles Dickens was living in this age. I think it is a great joke of God to give Jeremy the same initials as His son. There's quite a few of us broken people who have been struggling emotionally this week,  last night I had a major stress out,  I always find Christmas such a difficult time,  I love the beautiful remembrance of the Nativity, but struggle to celebrate it in a world full of materialistic tat. This year it's all been taken out of my hands because this horrible government has stolen all my money so I have none of my own to spend on Christmas, all I have is my heart. I've been praying for the people around me, the ones who I love, the ones who love me and the ones who despise me.  To me they are all the ones God plunked me in the midst of, and He doesn't make mistakes, there's always a reason for everything. Jeremy Corbyn, I was afraid of him at first, I'm sorry to say I believed the media account of him, and I didn't understand that although Jeremy Corbyn doesn't make a big show of his faith he does not despise the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is so obviously touched by the kindness of Jesus, as I am. Jesus was, is, kind. Jesus didn't send the 5000 home hungry or tell them to go to a food bank, He fed them. Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died,  He had, still has a loving heart, His love for other people was what defined Him.  I believe Jeremy Corbyn also has a loving heart, and kindness will be the driving force of his time in Parliament.

Barbara's Story by John Ward The Slog

This is the article the reporter John Ward, who used to run The Slog blog did about me. John was persecuted after doing this article and ended up moving from the UK,  I don't know if he was persecuted because of trying to help me but it wouldn't surprise me at all. I think it was 2008  or 2009 when he did this article, I can't remember, it may be somewhere on this blog.

The persecution hasn't stopped even now and I'm losing hope that it ever will. I'm feeling very tired and depressed now. I've asked for help from loads of charities and agencies, I've asked my own trade union I am a member of, UNITE to help me, they've refused to help me, the only thing they're interested in is helping themselves to my tiny bit of money, I have no income now, and am not allowed to marry my partner who I am forced to depend on for everything.

Barbara's Story

In and out of the UK's Care System all her life, Barbara Richards' story is a tragic and terrible indictment of a society turning to cruelty and abuse.

You can find various amateur home videos made by Barbara Richards and her friends on Youtube. Although many things have been taken away from Barbara's life, a scholarshop to RADA isn't one of them. On the videos, this woman looks what she is: a little desperate, very naive, poor, stressed and worn out.

Since she was a young girl, Barbara Richards has been treated like a nutter - with all the indiginity that goes with such a term. But defying the odds, she has turned herself into a nuisance: a one-woman printing press of letters to everyone from Jack Straw to the Archbishop of Canterbury. For come what may, Barbara will find little tranquility until the system that nearly destroyed her is rebuilt from the ground up - and all the memories therein thus expunged.

She first came to my attention when nby broke the story of suspicions in relation to Gordon Brown's health. Typically, she agreed with my diagnosis that he is 'a sick man', but begged me to persuade him that packing in the job would be good for both him and his family. I pointed out that I had zero influence among his ilk, but Barbara bombarded me with emails anyway. At the time, to be honest, it was the last thing I needed.

But right at the start of our correspondence, she had typed one terse sentence that brought me up short: 'I am a survivor of the pindown scandal and the secret family courts'. I had a vague idea what pindown was about: but when had it been - five years ago? Twenty? The memory plays tricks about such things. As for 'secret family courts', I'd never heard of them: it sounded like classic paranoia. So as the emails continued to arrive in my inbox - and the allegations got wilder - I put them to one side to focus on what I knew was going to be a rough ride from New Labour's denial machine.

Eventually, I emailed some questions to Barbara, and asked her to stop sending for a while until I'd digested the anwers. This she did - along with profuse apologies - and so I began to check out her version of events. To my surprise, virtually everything she alleged turned out to be a matter of record. And so this is Barbara's story.

As a pre-pubescent child, Barbara Richards suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her brother. "I didn't know what it was except I didn't want him to do it" she says, "And I felt I couldn't tell my father". After passing for her local Grammar School and demonstrating a talent for music, the traumas of her childhood helped bring on a total breakdown at the age of thirteen. There was an obvious dysfunction in her parental situation, although Barbara finds it hard to talk about or explain this. But her parents could no longer cope, and so at age 14, she was placed in a children's home: the infamous Chadswell centre in Staffordshire - later closed down because of the appalling level of child abuse (both sexual and physical) taking place there.

Barbara Richards describes her time there:

"I was punched by the man in charge for crying in the night, and put into a cell
 
I was left in the cell day and night with the lights on all the time so that I became confused. I believe that is a psychological torture technique that has been used by the CIA. 
 
I was left alone in that cell, and no-one made any attempt at all to find out why I had been crying, they were just dead cruel to me. 
 
When they let me out of the cell, I went straight up to the bathroom and jumped out the window on the 1st floor to escape."

As readers may have spotted back here in 2009, there's been rather a lot of jumping out of windows going on at the Scottish Good Shepherd centre: so far this year alone, 232 girls have run away from the place....and of course, two girls died when they committed suicide rather than go back.

"I ran down the road and the man came running after me and got two road workmen to catch me. They threw me onto the pavement then the man twisted my arms behind my back and got me back to the home.

I had read a suicide letter which another girl had written and she said in the letter that they were letting people come into the "home" to have sex with her against her will. I just thought that if I smeared snot and shit all over the place they would keep out. That's why they got St Georges Psychiatric Hospital to take me away."

So in July 1972, at the age of fourteen - already a veteran of sexual and physical abuse - Barbara was placed in St George's Psychiatric hospital in Stafford .

"One of the male nurses repeatedly tried to have sex with me....the psychiatrist told me there was nothing the matter with me and that I was only there as a "place of safety". It's a funny place to keep a young girl safe though, isn't it, on an adult mixed sex ward where there are drug addicts, sex offenders and people with serious mental health issues.

I recieved no schooling for a year at least. They would not let me go to school, and the school did not send me any homework. No-one from the school came to visit me, and as far as I am aware, no-one from the LEA did either"

After a year in St George's, Barbara changed schools twice to avoid 'you're a nutter' bullying - yet still passed five O-levels. But circumstances at home were tricky: her father suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, and the family was financially desperate. So despite wanting to take A-levels,

"... I had to get a job. I got a job at an agricultural firm, Burgesses. I hated it, it was rubbish pay as well. I felt like rubbish most of the time, and although I applied for other jobs, no-one wanted to take me on, because of me being in St Georges."

It is one of the many scandals in contemporary Britain that employment prejudice based on mental health remains rife - and does not represent a criminal offence in the way that sexism, ageism and racism do.

Around this time Barbara Richards began to receive unwanted attention from a family friend, freemason and one-time Labour deputy Mayor of Stone, David Haswell. Still mentally fragile and with a decade of abuse behind her, she was suffering from appallingly low self-esteem. Haswell persisted and eventually raped her.

"My son was concieved as a result of the rape. I didn't report the rape at the time, because I didn't realise that I had been raped at that point - I had been abused so many times that I didn't know what the definition of rape was, I thought a rapist had to have a gun or a knife or something, and I didn't realise that just saying "no" and "please don't" counted. Neither did I know anything about predatory grooming. I was being treated for mental illness at the time of the rape, because I was always crying, and people were calling me a "nutter" because of that, but I was crying because I was suffering from PTSD*, because of all the things which had happened. David Haswell was fully aware of my mental state, he knew I was ill, he pretended to help me, in the capacity of a family friend, and then he raped me. I didn't go to the police, but when I found out that my son had Aspergers Syndrome, the North Staffs clinic who diagnosed my son with this disorder sent a community nurse to my house to help support me..."

* Post-traumatic stress disorder

Thus, after a lifetime of endless mental, physical and sexual abuse, the first time Barbara Richards received any form of positive treatment at the hands of the State was after being raped and then giving birth to an Aspergers child. (This was a genetic inheritance from her father). It wasn't to continue. After several years of relatively normal life, she eventually managed to put into mature perspective what had happened to her. This was the start off her persistent campaign to reveal the widespread abuse apparent in most forms of social and mental care.

"I didn't want revenge, because I'm a Christian. I just wanted justice, and I still do. I just felt the truth had to come out"

But Barbara Richards discovered very quickly that there were many who didn't want the truth to come out. She wrote to everyone from the Queen to Jack Straw and downwards. Her MP Bill Cash was, she feels, less than helpful. And she wasn't the only one to notice this - for by now she'd enlisted the help and support of Lord Ramsbotham.

"Bill Cash did eventually tell me that he had been involved in the Pindown investigation, but he told me that there had been no conspiracy, and as a persecuted survivor I'm sure that is simply not true. Lord Ramsbotham told me that Bill Cash was not answering the letters that he wrote to him concerning me, when he very kindly offered to help me...he wrote to say he couldn't understand the silence from Cash."

Although the eventual Pindown Report was damning, events in the intervening years demonstrated all too tragically how little or nothing had changed. Bear in mind that Barbara's ordeal began thirty-seven years ago. When 11-year old care child Gareth Myatt died as a result of pindown-style abuse in 2004, once more there was a report. This Hansard extract sums up the continuing dereliction of our Parliamentary representatives: Northampton MP Sally (now Baroness) Keeble spoke as follows two years after Myatt's death:

'Ms Keeble: I ask four things of my right hon. Friend the Minister. First, there should be a public inquiry into the use of restraint in secure training centres. I say “public” because there was a review in 2004, at the time of Gareth’s death. A 113-page report was produced, which I have with me. It was rewritten several times and was finally reduced to a one-page summary, which was posted on the Youth Justice Board website. That is completely inadequate. Internal reviews have not dealt with the issues, which only emerged into the public domain as a result of Gareth’s death and inquest. They would not have emerged if it had not been for the work done by an organisation called Inquest.' (My highlighting)

We have skipped forward here because what Ms Keeble saw in 2006 was an attempt to paper over an enormous and very unpleasant settlement crack in the edifice known as the UK Care System. This has - if Barbara Richards' testimony is to be believed - taken the form of persecution by the authorities (especially those engaged in social work) in order to stop the victims revealing the extent of the problem. Richards again on what has happened to her since as a mother clashing with the infamous system of Secret Family Courts:

"They came up with this trumped up charge that I was abusing my son and I had this PAS [parental alienation syndrome]....which is absolute rubbish, it was just an excuse to stick me somewhere quiet. PAS is a totally discredited diagnosis used by paedophiles in the US to separate struggling parents from their young children".

This is a serious charge - but the evidence fully supports her view.

Dr. Paul J. Fink, a past President of the APA and President of the Leadership Council on Mental Health, Justice, and the Media, states categorically that

“PAS as a scientific theory has been excoriated by legitimate researchers across the nation. Judged solely on its merits, Dr. Gardner [the original 'inventor' of PAS] should be a pathetic footnote of psychiatry, or an example of poor scientific standards.... Gardner and his bogus theory have done untold damage to sexually and physically abused children and their protective parents."

This is because paedophiles can position themselves as 'safe alternatives' to mothers diagnosed with PAS. US attorney Richard Ducote goes further:

"Parental Alienation Syndrome is a bogus, pro-paedophiliac fraud concocted by Richard Gardner".

But Barbara Richards - and others at Mothers For Justice - allege that PAS has been used to shut up the whistleblowers here in the UK. Incensed by the way in which former pindown victims were being apparently persecuted, from 1998 onwards Stoke solicitor Richard Wise began to both 'spring' and then represent women being treated in this way - including Barbara. Partly as a result of this, he was voted Human Rights Lawyer of the Year. Profiled by both the Guardian and Independentnewspapers around this time, he was, it seems, the man who could hear about a case at breakfast and get the victim out of jail in time for tea. Barbara needed his help badly, as by now her life experiences at the hands of our 'caring' society had become too much for her:

'I was picked up by Stafford police round about 1999, following a failed suicide attempt, and I had been taken to Stafford Hospital and discharged myself, because when I woke up in the hospital I was frightened that they were going to shout at me and make me serve the patients their tea, as had happened when I had been taken to hospital when I was 16 in Devon, after a suicide attempt.'

Without question, Wise sensed something rotten behind the Family Courts persecution. Barbara again:

"Richard Wise was a good man. His brother Ian works at Doughty Street Chambers to this day. Richard was so angry with Stoke MP Mark Fisher for not caring about this issue, he stood against him at the 2001 election. But then he got liver cancer and died. It was so sad. Everyone admired him and he had helped so many people."

Seven years on, she is still fighting the appalling injustices faced by her and the hundreds of others both let down and terrorised by the care system itself, and - Richards continues to allege - those in it who want all these events to be seen as the one-off, the small minority, the lone rotten apple that's in every barrel. But in recent years, the mainstream media have latched on to the appallingly controlling behaviour of care staff, social workers and Court solicitors when it comes to cases like hers.

The two senior Government ministers technically responsible for this area are Harriet Harman and Ed Balls. In 2006, following Baroness Keeble's somewhat abruptly demanding question, Harman replied:

'"The idea that people are sent to prison without any reports of the proceedings makes even more important the work that we are undertaking with the family courts, and with the important intervention of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, to open them up so that they act in the public interest while maintaining personal privacy."

In April 2009, the Government did indeed allow some media ‘access’ to the Secret Courts – but effectively neutered it by insisting that ‘In the interests of children, for the safety and protection of parties or witnesses (or persons connected with them), for the orderly conduct of proceedings, or where justice would otherwise be prejudiced, the court will have the power to restrict the attendance of the media’. (My emphasis)

This is merely gesture government. A further Ministerial statement added that freer media access will be given "when time allows". Why couldn't it have been given this year? Or in 2007?

Everything proceeds pretty much as before. These were Ed Balls’ exact words following the recent Rocking Horse Nursery abuse trial:

"This is a deeply distressing and disturbing case. It is vital we find out how an adult could abuse their position of trust in such an evil way, and we must do everything we can to prevent this kind of abuse happening in the future".

There’s that ‘everything we can’ mantra again. But on the ground, the reality (in the case of Barbara and those like her) is nothing. But if Mr Balls cares to read this piece (and stop slandering me as 'an extreme right-wing blogger) he'd know a fair bit more about precisely how it happens - and why it will happen again and again and again....until such time as whatever cancer at the heart of social care is detected and clinically removed.

BORIS JOHNSON MATTHEW 5 v 44

Although I am very smashed up inside I do feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to do this and showed me something today. Boris Johnson doesnt even realise the horrific thing the Pentagon has got planned for this country. It is eugenics and it is wicked.

So I am going to light a candle and pray for Boris Johnson. I have got a special lovely place where the wild animals go and I am going to sit there for a while and pray for Boris Johnson to be enlightened. The Lord told us to Love one another, He wasn't talking about romance or sex or anything natural like that, He was talking about our supernatural, our spirits, which He wants to fill with love, kindness, peace and all goodness to one another.

The terrible terrible goings on in the bio robotics labs, they are not "science" they are torture, cruel and evil. We need proper scientists , observers, healers, inventors, people and institutions that will bless man and beast,  not Dr Frankenstein style institutions who cause pain and torture and suffering and callousness. That is not science. Eugenics is not science, it's primative, cruel, backwards.  We are not meant to hurt other animals and each other, the Lord forbade us to do that.  We should use our bodies, our hearts and souls to bless one another and the creatures we share this planet with.

I hope Boris Johnson gets to read this. I hope he will read it then pick up his Bible, if he had one and reads the life story of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please Boris Johnson, please be like the man in Luke 17 v 11 to 19. We all need healing, we all need our Saviour. Please. Your friend Dominic Cummings is going the wrong way. Eugenics is absolutely evil.  I will pray for you to be enlightened Boris Johnson and light a perfumed candle for you.

VIRGIN BROADBAND

Virgin Broadband. I would like someone from Virgin to explain to me how knocking someone's internet which they've paid for for the day is "improving the service"

Id also like to know (but I know damned well no one from Virgin will tell me) why our internet is up and down like a yoyo most days. And I would like to know the names of all the people they have authorised to spy on me using anti terrorism legislation that was never in a billion years meant to be used on whistleblowing institutional child trafficking victims!!!!!

THE EMBEZZLEMENT OF OUR NHS

LET'S SEE IF WE CAN FIND OUT WHO OLIVER GRIFFITHS IS.

Brexit: Department for International Trade hiring "almost exclusively from Whitehall", says recruitment chief

Written by Civil Service World on 29 November 2016 in News

DIT officials say Whitehall has trebled its trade policy staff numbers since the referendum, and stress focus on training up existing staff rather than drafting in outsiders

The Department for International Trade wants to build the trade skills of existing civil servants rather than buy in outside help as the UK prepares to leave the European Union, according to the new organisation's director of capability.

In the months following this summer's Brexit vote, much attention has been paid to the lack of trade policy experience inside Whitehall, a result of four decades in which responsibility for trade deals involving the UK has been handed to the EU.

The Department for International Trade wants to build the trade skills of existing civil servants rather than buy in outside help as the UK prepares to leave the European Union, according to the new organisation's director of capability.

In the months following this summer's Brexit vote, much attention has been paid to the lack of trade policy experience inside Whitehall, a result of four decades in which responsibility for trade deals involving the UK has been handed to the EU.

"We start from a core that was strong on trade policy," he said. "We had about 45 people in June that were focused on trade policy – albeit within the context of that being a support position for the European Commission in the EU. Now that's the core that we're building from. We're about 100 up from that."

Last week's Autumn Statement confirmed that the Foreign Office and Department for International Trade are to be given an extra £26m a year by 2019-20 to strengthen trade policy capability, and CSW understands that this extra money will lead to a five-fold increase in the number of people working on trade issues across government.

Griffiths said that the DIT's leadership had "an important decision" to make as it expands: whether to "buy" in or "build" trade policy clout.

"Our strong preference will always be to build," he said. "And our focus on recruitment to date has been almost exclusively from Whitehall."

A dedicated trade faculty has already been set up in the Foreign Office to help with what Griffiths called the "huge weight" of building those skills among existing civil servants, and James Norton – DIT's HR and organisational development director – said the department had plans to grow its trade policy staff numbers to 350 "by the end of the year".

John Alty, the DIT's director general for trade policy said the department's work remained "very much at a planning and exploratory stage" before next year's expected triggering of Article 50, the formal process by which the UK kicks off two years of talks on its EU exit.

Until then, Alty pointed out, the UK has "an obligation as members of the EU not to run an independent trade policy", although he said the department had already heard from countries "interested in talking to us about future trading arrangements".

"We obviously feed into the preparations for the Article 50 negotiations in so far as they may affect trade," he said. "But the direction of travel will become clearer as the government takes these decisions about how it wants to negotiate with the EU."

Meanwhile, Griffiths set out the scale of the task facing the DIT in the years ahead, pointing out that a typical free trade agreement is split into 20 to 30 chapters, each covering a different area of the economy. Such agreements are, he said, usually supported by a team of "50-100 people, depending on how big the negotiation is".

Griffiths said that striking deals at that scale will call for officials both with detailed policy knowledge and the "experience and skills to carry out a negotiation in a very complex multi-stakeholder environment".

It was on this second area, he added, where Whitehall may need to eventually draw on outside help.

"We've done a lot of the latter in the civil service in the past," he said. "But I think it would be a mistake to just look at the civil service and so, as we move into that detailed negotiation phase [...] in the future we would certainly be looking to have those posts opened to the best and the brightest both in the public and private sectors."

https://www.ft.com/content/68e4d7aa-ae6b-11e7-beba-5521c713abf4

Oliver Griffiths, director of capability at the trade department, told a parliamentary committee last year that trade negotiators were not “mythical creatures” and many civil servants had the relevant skills. He said at the time that Whitehall needed to recruit “across the piece” to address the shortage of trade negotiators, but said the “strong preference” was to recruit internally.

Policy Engagement: Meeting with the United States …

https://www.babinc.org/pe-traderep-dit

BritishAmerican Business will host Assistant USTR Dan Mullaney and Department for International Trade, Director of Americas Negotiations, Oliver Griffiths, for a roundtable with BAB Members on the work of the UK-US Trade and Investment Group and present issues affecting transatlantic trade and investment

Boris gives ‘cast iron guarantee’ NHS is NOT up for sale ...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10432994/jeremy-corbyn-produce…

9 hours ago · "Oliver Griffiths, the Director for Americas Negotiations at the Department for International Trade, (OG) followed by updating on recent …

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38143122

The UK is retraining civil servants as post-Brexit trade negotiators but is also set to "buy in" expertise from outside, a top official has told MPs.

The UK's capacity to negotiate trade deals with other countries after Brexit has been queried, with up to 100 staff needed alone for a single agreement.

Oliver Griffiths said negotiators were not "mythical creatures" and current staff had many of the skills required.

But he said the civil service would need to recruit "across the piece".

Whitehall is expected to have to recruit thousands - as many as 30,000 according to a recent internal Deloitte's assessment - of civil servants to deal with the challenge of extricating the UK from the EU after June's referendum vote.

There are particular concerns about a shortage of trade negotiators, given that many of the UK's most experienced professionals in this field are currently working for the EU - which arranges trade deals for all member states including the UK - and are not guaranteed to return.

'Experienced core'

Giving evidence to MPs on the international trade select committee, senior officials said they were "ramping up" their operations in light of the Brexit vote - with the new international trade department led by Liam Fox now employing 2,700 staff.

Mr Griffiths, the department's director of trade policy capability, said the UK had 45 trade policy experts at the time of the referendum vote and this number was now "100 up on that".

"We start from a core that was strong on trade policy... albeit that being a support position for the European Commission," he said.

Although there was more to trade policy than negotiating bilateral agreements, Mr Norton acknowledged that reaching deals with countries outside the EU after Brexit would draw heavily on the department's resources in the coming years.

"A free trade agreement is typically 20 to 30 chapters, covering a particular area like agriculture or services," he explained. "You would tend to have an individual that is leading at that chapter level - a specialist that understands that policy area very well.

"You will then have a level of deputies that will provide the co-ordination and oversight of the text that is being produced and then you will have a chief negotiator that sits at the top. It is a pyramid structure and you can imagine a free trade agreement team being 50 to 100 people."

'Mythical creature'

As it looked to supplement its already "experienced" team, Mr Griffiths said the civil service's "strong preference" was to recruit internally - meaning training existing civil servants rather than recruiting negotiators from other countries.

But he added: "We have an important decision to make which is effectively do we buy or build. The focus of our recruitment to date has almost exclusively been from Whitehall. But what that puts is a huge weight in terms of up-skilling and training.

"We have a trade faculty that has been set up by the Foreign Office that is going to be playing a huge role."

Asked by SNP MP Angus MacNeil, who chairs the committee, whether the UK was simply replacing an experienced Brussels-based bureaucracy with a less experienced London-based one, Mr Griffiths said there was a danger trade negotiators were being seen as "mythical creatures".

To be a negotiator, he said, people had to understand the policy areas at stake and to have the experience and skills to "carry out a negotiation in a very complex multi-stakeholder environment".

"We have done a lot of the latter in the civil service in the past but I think it would be a mistake to just look at the civil service," he added.

"As we move into that open and detailed negotiation phase, we will certainly be looking to have posts that are open to the best and brightest in both the public and private sectors."

I'm going to have to put this here as well

More intriguing than a John le Carré thriller, the shadowy story behind Brexit is a tailor-made blockbuster involving eccentric billionaires, far-right cabals, spies, spivs, technological skulduggery and a host of unscrupulous politicians supported by an unwitting cast of millions of UK citizens.

The Westminster Lair

Central to the story, an opulent area of Westminster; the lair of a plethora of right-wing, far-right and lunatic fringe climate change deniers, which are centred on 55 and 57 Tufton Street.

Owned by businessman Richard Smith, 55 Tufton Street has stealthily played a significant role in what could be the defining moment in 21st century UK political history. It’s now the visible tip of an enormous neocon iceberg whose raison d’être is to deliver a mechanism for radical change of a magnitude that will massively impact the lives of a still largely oblivious UK population.

Within the walls of these innocuous Westminster town houses, a well-funded collection of closely connected groups have been diligently astroturfing, lobbying, coercing, plotting and scheming with politicians and media platforms for years with the aim of delivering a Brexit that would be consistent with the ideology of their foreign paymasters.

The Nine Entities

55 Tufton St, we learn from Shahmir Sanni, the whistleblower who was involved with Vote Leave, who was also a tenant before moving to nearby Westminster Tower, then BeLeave and the Tax Payers’ Alliance, against whom he has brought a claim for unfair dismissal, is where what he describes as ‘The Nine Entities’ meet. These entities are:

• The Adam Smith Institute (Great Smith St)
• Brexit Central (55)
• The Centre for Policy Studies (57)
• Civitas (55)
• The Global Warming Policy Foundation (55)
• The Institute for Economic Affairs (Lord North St)
• Leave means Leave (55)
• The Office of Peter Whittle (The New Culture Forum) (55)
• The Tax Payers’ Alliance (55)

Shahmir recounts how these ‘Nine Entities’ took part in biweekly meetings chaired by ex BBC and Telegraph journalist, Jonathan Isaby, who having worked at the ‘Tax Payers’ Alliance’ since 2011, when he was appointed their political director, became their chief executive in 2014, and then ‘moved’ to Brexit Central to become their editor; a common enough scenario amongst the ‘Nine Entities’ apparently, who Shahmir alleges operate a ‘revolving door’ policy of employment between each other.

Shahmir explains:

“Meetings take place at 55 Tufton Street every other Tuesday (“The Tuesday Meetings”). Attendance at the Tuesday Meetings varies, but is usually attended by all or substantially all of the Nine Entities. The Respondent and its staff lead the Tuesday Meetings, which are typically chaired by Mr Isaby. The purpose of the Tuesday Meetings is to agree a common line on political topics in the news between the Nine Entities, and to co-ordinate the public messaging that the individual organisations can then issue on that topic.”

The Thin Veil Slips

During the referendum, Vote Leave was at pains to distance itself from the Arron Banks funded Leave.EU and particularly their frontman, Nigel Farage.

Vote Leave’s rationale was that Leave.EU and Farage  had a reputation for trading in the gutter, a gutter overflowing with society’s racist element, a reputation that could have easily discouraged their own supporters from voting to leave the EU.

Despite this reservation, Vote Leave weren’t adverse to using the votes Farage brought with him to get the Leave campaign over the line; just 635,000 votes swung the election in Leave’s favour.

But today, that thin veil of contentious respectability has slipped. Faced with a resurgent Remain movement, as the Brexit turkeys come home to roost, Leave means Leave has found a home at 55 Tufton St.

Co-founded by Richard Tice, an active member of the Leave.EU hierarchy, Leave means Leave has now welcomed Nigel Farage who’s using it as a platform for his ‘return to frontline politics’.

As seen below, Leave means Leave is almost a reincarnation of Conservatives for Britain, little more than a collection of impotent right-wing backbenchers and ERG members who excel in little more than populist rhetoric and dog-whistle politics.

Leave means Leave’s chosen home is a significant development in that, for the first time, it brings two of the main characters of the separate strands of the Leave campaign into proximity at 55 Tufton St, Matthew Elliott and Nigel Farage.

High profile, charismatic, media savvy Farage has always been there to distract the electorate away from the true objectives of Brexit.

From UKIP, through to Leave.EU and now Leave means Leave, the same simple yet effective messaging of taking back control of borders, sovereignty and trade policy from unelected EU bureaucrats is the false populist rhetoric designed to maximise media attention and mislead their target; the low-information voter, so essential to the delivery of the EU referendum, who is fed-up with what’s on offer from our two main parties.

By comparison, the adenoidal Elliott maintains a much lower profile. A far less charismatic individual, he appears clumsy, awkward and easily challengeable during combative media appearances.

However, where Elliott excels is in his tenacious approach and being politically attuned to like-minded individuals from the international far-right. He’s made the UK’s secession from the EU his life’s work, as can be seen in this quote from a letter he sent to Vote Leave coordinator and now adviser to Leavers for London, (before mysteriously disappearing from their website), Alexander Shayler:

DEAR ALEXANDER,

WE DID IT! IT WAS THE BIGGEST DECISION OF OUR LIFETIMES; MANY OF US HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS CHANCE FOR DECADES; THE COUNTRY DID THE RIGHT THING, AND VOTED LEAVE. 

A graduate of the London School of Economics, Elliott is a founding member of many of the groups at Tufton St who have engineered the real Brexit; not the Leave campaign fantasy wrapped in a union flag but the real far-right ideology designed to deliver a low-tax, small state, deregulated economy that will have a detrimental affect on the lives of the very UK citizens they coerced into believing they were voting Leave for reasons other than to negatively impact the NHS, public services, schools and the day-to-day lives of the vast majority of the people of the UK.

The LSE describes its BSc Government degree as “Politics is about power, conflict and ideas. The study of politics involves analysis of the ways in which individuals and groups define and interpret political issues and seek to shape government decisions.” Elliott took to this like a duck to water and, since graduating with a First in this subject, he’s attempted to practice exactly what he was preached.

Setting up groups as vehicles designed to shape government decisions was a strategy enthusiastically embraced by Elliott. It was also a strategy used to promote an agenda set by people from another country.

Beginning with the Tax payers’ Alliance, as a co-founder with Andrew Allum, Elliott went on to become a founding member of Business for Britain (the prototype for Vote Leave), Big Brother Watch and, alongside Dominic Cummings, Vote Leave.

Whilst at Vote Leave Elliott was involved in the registration of a host of grassroots organisations that appeared to be simply a delivery method for Vote Leave’s astroturfing tactics. Prior to the referendum, over twenty groups, all using the ‘for Britain’ title, were registered, including Muslims for Britain, Veterans for Britain and Women for Britain.

Post-referendum, Elliott went on to set-up BrexitCentral, manned predominantly by personnel from Elliott’s stable, such as former fashion student, Darren Grimes who was magically transformed into their deputy editor behind Jonathan Isaby. BrexitCentral surprisingly secured unfettered access to Parliament by obtaining a journalistic pass allowing them to gain access to prime minister’s briefings and the lobby; much to the chagrin of traditional journalists attempting to report the facts rather than attempting to deliver little more than an agenda.

Elliott’s Brexit strategy wasn’t simply deployed during the months prior to the referendum. Following the 2015 general election, Elliott was involved in setting up Conservatives for Britain, a group of MPs that included the usual suspects such as Steve Baker, David Campbell Bannerman MEP, Bernard Jenkin, Bill Cash, John Redwood, Owen Paterson, James Cleverly and Tom Pursglove; a vehicle for backbenchers who organised a rebellion in the Commons to ensure purdah was reinstated into the Referendum Bill. You can watch Elliott explain here how an organisation not yet formed, set-up ‘Conservatives for Britain’.

Elliott explained that this small victory “was absolutely vital for a fair and balanced campaign” which, in hindsight, was an astonishing claim now that the full facts surrounding Vote Leave’s campaign strategy and tactics are a matter of record.

The evidence was there for all to see a long time before the referendum. The Electoral commission knew of Steve Baker’s plan to set-up organisations to circumvent the spending restrictions; they were also aware that in November 2015, Vote Leave set-up a fake company so that two students could heckle David Cameron at the CBI conference.

The stunt was widely described as “grubby” and former minister Eric Pickles called for Vote Leave to be denied the lead status for the then forthcoming referendum, but campaign Dominic Cummings responded, “You think it’s nasty? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

We now know that Elliot and Cummings’ Vote Leave carried on lying, cheating and breaking the law with impunity; friends in high places indeed.

Elliott had also played a significant role in the ill-fated ‘Conservative Friends of Russia’, an organisation whose Tory MP membership later resembled rats deserting a sinking ship when the groups motives were brought into question following the discovery that their head contact at the Russian Embassy, Sergey Nalobin, was a spy who was later expelled from Britain.

Echoing the later cultivation of Leave.EU’s Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore by the Russians, the group was thought to be little more than an FSB influence operation, causing the organisation to later reinvent itself as ‘The Westminster Russia Forum’.

Elliott, far-right, photographed on a staircase with his ‘Friends of Russia’ inside the Duma during a ten day visit to Russia in 2012.

Away from the think tank world, the ever busy Elliott was also a partner in ‘Awareness Analytics Partners’, known as A2P, this company specialises in areas similar to Cambridge Analytica. A2P is funded by the ultra conservative, creationist DeVos family and the Koch brothers, people who are synonymous with right-wing organisations such as the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. You can read Wendy Siegelman’s excellent investigation into Elliott’s involvement in A2P here.

Most intriguing of all, Elliott has had substantial involvement with two heavyweight organisations, the Atlas Network and the Legatum Institute.

Elliott and The Legatum Institute

Since January 2017 Elliott had been a senior fellow of the secretive and publicity shy Legatum Institute; a senior fellow until they decided to distance themselves from him, along with fellow poputchik, their Director of Economic policy, Shanker Singham.

Bad publicity for Legatum, concerning Elliott and Singham’s high-profile involvement in shaping the government’s Brexit policy, came to a head when MP Liam Byrne, using parliamentary priviledge, suggested that Legatum was being financed through money ultimately derived from Russia. Legatum, since the arrival of Elliott and Singham, had forged close links with Michael Gove and Boris Johnson and were constantly in the news as their frequent policy meetings with the government were widely reported.

This attention was far too much for New Zealander Christopher Chandler, the Dubai based businessman and founding partner of the Legatum Group who in turn had pumped millions into the London based Legatum Institute. Elliott and Singham both left in March 2018 with Singham subsequently finding employment at ‘nine entities member’ the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Now at the IEA, Singham simply carried on where he had left off with Legatum, as can be seen here in this Newsnight video:

http://www.brexitshambles.com/brexit-scam-we-need-to-talk-about-tufton-street/

TOM O CARROLL AT THE HOUSE OF LORDS QUAFFING CHAMPAGNE

https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/17477076.convicted-barrow-paedophile-is-thanked-at-charity-event-at-the-house-of-lords/

A NOTORIOUS paedophile - who campaigned for sex with children as young as ten to be legalised - was invited to a House of Lords bash by a charity.

Tom O’Carroll, a former head of the Paedophile Information Exchange (Pie), which campaigned to lower the age of sexual consent, was among 60 guests who were thanked at a reception for donating money to Book Aid International.

Book Aid International is a charity which sends books to children in Sub Saharan Africa and around the world.

Speaking to a national newspaper at his flat in Barrow, the 73-year-old said: “I was kind of a guest of honour.

“A few years ago I did give a pretty substantial amount.

“I was invited by one of the members of the Lords, who is patron or chairman.”

In 1980 he wrote a book entitled Paedophilia: The Radical Case, in which he argues some sexual relationships between an adult and a child should be “normalised”.

O’Carroll was a key activist for PIE – which was set up in 1974 to campaign for a change in the law – and was once described as ‘one of the most infamous perverts on Earth’.

He was jailed in 1981 for ‘corrupting public morals’ and again more than two decades later for child sex offences.

He received a two-and-a-half year jail-term at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in December 2006 for two counts of distributing indecent images of children.

Book Aid International’s chief executive Alison Tweed said: “We were all shocked to learn of Mr O’Carroll’s history. We have already taken action to sever all ties and will increase our vigilance for future invitation-only events. We hope that this incident does not in any way affect our ability to continue our vital work helping children around the world to achieve their potential.”

She confirmed O’Carroll donated less than £500 in total over three separate occasions since 2015 and this money had been refunded. No children were at the event.

A House of Lords spokesperson said: “The event sponsored by Lord Boateng, on behalf of Book Aid International, met the rules regarding the use of banqueting facilities in the House of Lords.

I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT BOOK AID INTERNATIONAL ARE TELLING THE TRUTH IN THIS STATEMENT. TOM O CARROLL SHOULD BE IN PRISON.

A message from our Chief Executive

You may have read a news piece this week regarding a convicted paedophile attending an event hosted by Book Aid International at the House of Lords last December.

Unfortunately this story is true.

We of course had absolutely no knowledge of this individual’s history. He was one of over 400 people on a mailing list invited to this short reception.

I would like to reassure you that no children were present at this event and that this person has had no contact whatsoever with any children through his donations to Book Aid International.

We exist as a charity to give children a brighter future by sending books that will support their education and open their minds to the world around them. We are therefore dismayed that this individual should have attempted to associate himself in any way with our charity.

Below, you will find  a statement which we sent to The Sun newspaper after becoming aware of this incident:

In respect of Tom O’Carroll’s attendance at a Book Aid International reception in the House of Lords on 17 December 2018

Book Aid International is a small charity, established in 1954, which sends books to communities in Sub Saharan Africa and around the world in order to improve literacy and change lives.

The charity is shocked to learn that a donor who attended a short reception at the House of Lords is a convicted paedophile. The background of this individual was unknown to the charity and, had it been known, he certainly would not have been invited to the event.

Mr O’Carroll donated less than £500 in total over three separate occasions since 2015 and this money has been refunded.  Mr O’Carroll was one of 400 people on a mailing list who was invited to the House of Lords reception, with 60 turning up on the night. Book Aid International complied fully with the requirements laid down by House authorities and there were no children present.

Alison Tweed, Book Aid International’s Chief Executive, said: “We were all shocked to learn of Mr O’Carroll’s history. We have already taken action to sever all ties with Mr O’Carroll and will increase our vigilance for future invitation-only events. We hope that this incident does not in any way affect our ability to continue our vital work helping children around the world to achieve their potential.”  

Lord Paul Boateng, chair of Book Aid International, said: “The charity does excellent work globally, has strengthened its procedures and have expressed regret for any embarrassment caused. They continue to deserve the public’s support.”

Book Aid International also complies with all laws and regulations as set out by the Charity Commission, the Institute of Fundraising and the Direct Marketing Association. It is not current practice for charities to screen all donors – as it would be impractical to do so – although established due diligence policies are in place for those donating large sums.

Please rest assured that we remain committed to our work of bringing books and the joy of reading to people around the world and we will not be deflected from our mission by this very unfortunate incident.

Yours sincerely,

Alison Tweed
Chief Executive
Book Aid International