Liam Fox and his "advisor"

[Jasandjules]

If he's lied and covered up, then in my view his position should be at risk.

[Long Drax]

Zod said:

Long Drax said:

The whole affair looks a bit queer if you ask me.

That has been well known for a long time.

How long have you known, because I've only recently found out?

Was his wedding to a woman just a sham to gull of his homophobic
constituents and party members, then?

[vonuber]

Of course, this being PH, if it was a liebore MP this thread would be 500 pages long already, and calling for martial law.

[CATS ARE BOXING]

I thought the Guardian was against Fox hunting?

[s3fella]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Surely this fella's just been following him about for a bum?

[Jasandjules]

CATS ARE BOXING said:

I thought the Guardian was against Fox hunting?

They will make an exception here....

[Marf]

So aside from taking his friend into the MoD and his friend having a business card saying advisor to Dr Fox, what's the issue here?

Or is it all just insinuations and rumours? Seems that way to me.

[Jasandjules]

Marf said:

So aside from taking his friend into the MoD

I only caught a brief flash of the news last night but I believe the advisor may have been involved in a meeting which was regarding top secret information when the advisor does not have the security clearance to do so..

[paddyhasneeds]

Marf said:

So aside from taking his friend into the MoD and his friend having a business card saying advisor to Dr Fox, what's the issue here?

Or is it all just insinuations and rumours? Seems that way to me.

Putting aside all the sexuality innuendos, don't you think it a bit odd when you have the Secretary of State for Defence going into a meeting with the President of another country, with "his mate" alongside him?

I don't know whether you're staff or self-employed but wouldn't you find it a little odd if you were called into a meeting with your boss and were introduced to "Bill" who he knows from the pub?

One the face of things so far it looks bad. It may be stupidity and a bit of naivety rather than down to any dodgy ulterior motives but it doesn't look great.

[Randy Winkman]

Marf said:

Or is it all just insinuations and rumours? Seems that way to me.

That's why people want to know what's going on.

[Marf]

paddyhasneeds said:

Putting aside all the sexuality innuendos, don't you think it a bit odd when you have the Secretary of State for Defence going into a meeting with the President of another country, with "his mate" alongside him?

If(yet to be confirmed I believe) it happened, then yes it's a bit odd. At the moment all I see is throwing people throwing lots of sh-t and hoping some sticks.

[turbobloke]

Maybe the media is expecting to find that Werritty is a Mandelson ex with passport issues, a dodgy mortgage application, and unexplained sources of wealth.

[Sticks.]

Marf said:

paddyhasneeds said:

Putting aside all the sexuality innuendos, don't you think it a bit odd when you have the Secretary of State for Defence going into a meeting with the President of another country, with "his mate" alongside him?

If(yet to be confirmed I believe) it happened, then yes it's a bit odd. At the moment all I see is throwing people throwing lots of sh-t and hoping some sticks.

This meeting? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15231054

[Marf]

Bit odd, but are we really going to lay into him for bending protocol?

I'm not really sure what has been done thats overtly "wrong" in this happening.

I'm getting the impression that protocol aside, people don't really know what is wrong with this happening, and are just doing the media's work for them and turning a mountain into a molehill.

Edited by Marf on Sunday 9th October 10:47

[scenario8]

Most likely is that the most "wrong" he's done is not telling his mate to "eff off I'm a Secretary of State now". At best it shows poor judgement and naivety. It warrants a bloody nose from the Prime Minister and a reduction in the value of his stock. Not good news for his department, and better news for Number 11.

Personally I don't see much in the media suggesting a great deal more.

I'd imagine were this three years ago a Labour Secretary of State would be in more trouble and the subject of a hundred page thread in these fora.

[paddyhasneeds]

Marf said:

Bit odd, but are we really going to lay into him for bending protocol?

I'm not really sure what has been done thats overtly "wrong" in this happening.

I'm getting the impression that protocol aside, people don't really know what is wrong with this happening, and are just doing the media's work for them and turning a mountain into a molehill.

Going back to my earlier question, if you're an employee would you think it acceptable to be called into a meeting with your manager only to find Dave from the pub sitting in the corner listening in?

If you're a manager, would you bring Dave from the pub to your meetings?

Even if nothing "wrong" has been done, it looks unprofessional at best.

I agree the media are on their usual witch hunt, hence the importance of the initial report into it.

[Marf]

scenario8 said:

Most likely is that the most "wrong" he's done is not telling his mate to "eff off I'm a Secretary of State now". At best it shows poor judgement and naivety. It warrants a bloody nose from the Prime Minister and a reduction in the value of his stock. Not good news for his department, and better news for Number 11.

Personally I don't see much in the media suggesting a great deal more.

Well, if thats the best/worst that can be dug up on the current gov't they're doing pretty well at this stage eh?

[monkey gland]

paddyhasneeds said:

If you're a manager, would you bring Dave from the pub to your meetings?

The issue is that Werrity wasn't being presented as a buddy of Fox but rather a special advisor.

The whole saga is dodgy, and if this is the sort of thing he is getting caught out on then goodness knows what else is going on in secret.

Cameron is going to make him pay, good revenge for him after Fox's "leaked" letters from the MoD.

[Victor McDade]

Marf said:

So aside from taking his friend into the MoD and his friend having a business card saying advisor to Dr Fox, what's the issue here?

Or is it all just insinuations and rumours? Seems that way to me.

His friend ran a defence consultancy (for a period it was based in Liam Fox's own flat). He then set up a meeting with some Arab dealers who wanted to sell the MoD some items. No one other than Fox, his friend and the Dubai based dealers were present at this meeting. Is this not a bit of an odd way to go about making defence procurements? And would Werritty have profited from any such deal?

If Werritty made money out of his association with the Defence Secretary (using his name on business cards, accompanying him on foreign trips etc) and Fox knew about this then surely Fox's judgement has to be called into question here.

[TheSnitch]

There is far more to this story than just Liam Fox dragging his ''friend'' to meetings with him.

Behind it all lies a court case over a piece of technology developed by scientists at Porton Down, sold into the private sector, and the attempts by companies set up by the UK government to recoup their losses when the company to whom they had sold it abandoned it as a commercial goer.

During the early stages of the court case, where a judgement is still awaited, Werritty arranged a meeting between Liam Fox and the CEO of the investment company who was involved in this business. Fox claims that meeting was ''a chance encounter in a restaurant'' but unfortunately there is a paper trail which shows the meeting was arranged by Werritty well in advance.

As a result of that meeting, the CEO of the investment company fired off certain emails to the private sector company they were in the middle of suing, claiming he was authorised to act on behalf of Liam Fox and the MoD. Certain statements in those emails led the company in question to launch legal action claiming that there had been attempts to blackmail and extort money from them.

The prospect now exists that Liam Fox could be dragged into this blackmail case as a witness.

So..........he has far more to worry about than just the accusation that he took his ''friend'' to meetings with him.

Of course, what will decide his fate is the fact that he appears to have lied about it. That's what will sink him.