Don't see how this was anything but highly inappropriate. All the facts are already known.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/29/w...er-arcuri.html
Hope is the denial of reality
Lol, they just don't know how to stop lying
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Grifters of a feather:
Grant to Boris Johnson’s ex model friend Jennifer Arcuri is frozen
More than half of a £100,000 grant given by the government to a company owned by a friend of Boris Johnson has been frozen.
Jennifer Arcuri, an American, was awarded more than £126,000 of public funds for her companies after she joined Mr Johnson’s campaign to be re-elected mayor of London while she was at university in the capital.
It also emerged last night that Ms Arcuri is being sued over a student loan that part-funded her life in London.
One company was allocated the £100,000 grant to train “ethic hackers” months after it was revealed it had employed a computer expert who was wanted for allegedly stealing data from US government agencies. Matt Warman, the digital minister, told MPs that the unpaid £53,000 of the grant awarded in January to Hacker House would be frozen until a review was finished.
Mr Warman said officials had verified that the company met the rules for the grants to cybersecurity companies to be based in England by checking its address with Companies House and that it had a UK telephone number.
The company’s registered address turned out to be a rented house in Prestbury, Cheshire, where Ms Arcuri and her husband had stayed before moving to California last summer. The address was amended yesterday to an office complex in Fleet Street, central London. Calls to Hacker House’s UK number were answered by a woman who said she was in the United States.
[...]
Mr Warman confirmed that the grant breached a rule that the funding should not account for more than half a company’s revenue. He said officials decided that “other aspects more than outweighed that individual criteria”.
It was reported yesterday that Ms Arcuri had employed Lauri Love, wanted by the US authorities for allegedly stealing government data. Mr Love’s extradition was blocked by the High Court in February last year because of concerns about his mental health.
Ms Arcuri, 34, joined Mr Johnson on three trade missions while he was mayor of London. Mr Johnson, 55, attended four technology forums organised by another of her companies, Innotech Network. The two announced plans for a £100 million investment fund. The mayor’s investment agency, London & Partners, sponsored two Innotech events.
[...]
Tom Watson, the deputy leader of Labour, told MPs it was “very difficult” to see how Hacker House fulfilled the criteria for the grant.
Matthew Hickey, Ms Arcuri’s British husband, wrote on Twitter that he owned Hacker House and his wife “just works there”. Records at Companies House show that Hacker House was registered by Ms Arcuri in July 2015 and she remained its only director and shareholder until Mr Hickey, 36, was appointed a director in August 2016.
It emerged last night that the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA) began legal action in June last year to recover $96,670.77 plus interest from Ms Arcuri. She secured a student loan for $86,021.51 from the group in 2011 to pay for her MBA studies at the London campus of Hult International Business School, which has its headquarters in Massachusetts.
Documents filed by MEFA at Jefferson County circuit court in Kentucky, partially republished by the Daily Mail, show that Ms Arcuri was due to begin repaying the debt in March 2013.
Instead she lobbied investors in Britain to raise the £200,000 required to qualify for an entrepreneur visa that would enable her to stay in Britain for three more years. To date she appears not to have paid off any of her MEFA loan. It was reported that a court summons sent to the Louisville, Kentucky, home of her mother and stepfather last year went unanswered. A second summons issued in April has not yet been answered either.Boris overruled officials to take friend on jet set trade missions
Boris Johnson failed to declare a series of potential conflicts of interest over a close friendship with an American model turned technology entrepreneur during his time as London mayor.
An investigation by The Sunday Times can reveal that the woman, Jennifer Arcuri, was given a total of £126,000 in public money and privileged access to three official overseas trade missions led by Johnson.
Sources have confirmed that Johnson, now 55 and prime minister, was a regular visitor to Arcuri's top-floor flat in Shoreditch, east London.
Arcuri, who was in her late twenties at the time, is claimed to have described him as "one of her best friends".
Evidence obtained by this newspaper shows that in 2013 Arcuri's fledgling business received £10,000 in sponsorship cash from an organisation that Johnson was responsible for as London mayor. He attended numerous events she arranged that promoted her company.
Arcuri was also given preferential treatment when it came to joining overseas trade missions led by Johnson. Her business had not met the eligibility criteria for any of the three Johnson trade missions she attended in the space of just a year.
Initial decisions to turn her down for two of those trips were overturned after intervention by Johnson and his close team in the mayor's office.
One internal email shows how she was given access to a New York trade mission after she discussed the matter with Johnson and he was said to have been happy for her to take part.
As mayor, Johnson was bound by the Greater London Authority's code of conduct "to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest".
He was also expressly barred from providing any undue benefits to friends.
[...]
In June last year, she relocated back to America, but her latest company still managed to win a £100,000 grant intended for English-based businesses from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) earlier this year.
The department is now investigating the award of the grant after this newspaper's inquiries discovered that Arcuri's company's regisspeeches tered address — which was used on the grant application form — is a rented house in Cheshire that is no longer connected to her. She now lives in California.
[...]
Arcuri and Johnson were photographed together on many occasions. She heaped praise on Johnson in social media, defended him from attacks on Twitter, took part in his mayoral campaign, and posted photos she had taken of his speeches at party conferences and a charity event.
The two became close friends and Johnson is said to have made "many visits" to her flat. Chandan Daryanani, the owner of the building, claims Arcuri told him that Johnson was a frequent visitor. He said: "He definitely used to come along and they were very close friends she mentioned once he was one of her best friends".
[...]
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Stateside you have a disgusting misogynist who boasted on video that he likes to "grab em by the pussy", something he hasn't to my knowledge denied [how could he, it was his words on camera] or apologised for.
This side we have an unsubstantiated report that has come out and been swiftly denied allegedly to have occured over 20 years ago but not mentioned until now despite the #MeToo movement being around for years during which Boris has been high profile and for many public enemy number one that whole time.
If it happened its wrong and unacceptable.
Its interesting how the story has evolved today. When it came out many were saying the other woman who was there and could verify it was Ms Wakefield but then she immediately denied it occured. Every news article seems to mention Ms Wakefield's husband but they don't seem to mention Ms Edwarde's equally if not more famous and just as biased paramour.
Can anybody please explain to me what is the difference between a Tory and a Labour government any longer? The present lot seems to have found the high spin setting on the money presses.
Congratulations America
Every Labour government runs out of other people's money to spend. They promise to splash the cash on everything.
The Tories spend properly. The deficit has been brought down and now we can in Cameron's words "share the proceeds of growth" on higher spending/lower taxes.
Lol, these fuckers just can't stop lying, and their uneducated supporters can't stop gulping down the bullshit
Twitter Link
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
The Grauniad must be lying then: https://www.theguardian.com/society/...-england-wales typical Grauniad can't tell the truth, is that what you're saying?
Originally Posted by The Grauniad, emphasis mine
That statistic does not refer to the category "the most serious violent and sexual offenders".
Twitter Link
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
No, I'm pointing out that the statistic mentioned in the Guardian does not refer to that particular category of criminals. The account in question is the author of one of the best-selling and best-reviewed books in the UK this year, about the justice system; as far as anyone has been able to determine, he or she is a barrister or equivalent. Other prominent legal professionals are in agreement that this announcement is misleading, for the same reason as this writer: practically all criminals in that category receive extended determinate sentences, which, you'll note, is not true of the category of criminals the article refers to.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Except the Tweet's authors very second Tweet in that thread confirms that this will apply to some criminals and bemoans the cost of the announcement. If this was fake news and didn't apply to anyone, there would be no cost.
Twitter Link
Arguing the money could be better spent elsewhere is fair enough, that's cause for debate. To claim simultaneously that this is fake and doesn't apply to anyone then claim that its going to cost is a tad illogical don't you think? The very rest of that thread continues that chain of thought bemoaning the cost and calling for alternatives. So the idea that the most serious violent and sexual offenders all receive extended determinate sentences is fake.
You could've just scrolled down a bit.
Twitter Link
Twitter Link
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
This much is true.
With the end of austerity the Tories have put forward a large increase of £13.8bn on public spending. Hospitals, the police, infrastructure and local government the primary beneficiaries of the windfall.
This after Hammond, the last chancellor, held much back in fiscal reserves of what he could have spent in order to cope with the fallout from a no-deal Brexit.
It seems Javid has more confidence Brexit will not bring the significant economic downturn many predict it will.
Of course Hammond also vetoed spending on proper preparations for a no deal Brexit and voted with May to extend Brexit so it wouldn't happen. If a no-deal Brexit occurs and you haven't prepared for it then of course the damage will be worse.
Its interesting to see how much more is being done now, even down to the overhead boards on the Motorway are now giving advice on papers required for after Brexit. Much of the predicted disruption a no deal Brexit was meant to cause is because hauliers weren't prepared and didn't have the right paperwork but May's government weren't prompting what the right paperwork is and getting it to people - one thing you can pretty much guarantee with hauliers is they use the motorway network and the message is very much getting out there now.
What a shame we wasted the better part of three years with Hammond and May.
From today's ST:
Nothing to declareBoris 'recommended Arcuri' for £100,000 quango job
INSIGHT Boris Johnson wrote a letter recommending his friend Jennifer Arcuri for a high-flying job as the head of a government quango reporting directly to Downing Street, according to emails passed to The Sunday Times.
The emails show that Arcuri listed the then London mayor as her reference when she was applying for the £100,000-a-year job as chief executive of the technology quango Tech City, for which she was woefully underqualified.
Arcuri was a 27-year-old student when Johnson is said to have endorsed her for the post, which was intended for "proven business leaders". Arcuri later wrote of the episode: "I still have the letter of rec from Boris. Hahaha. To think that we asked him to write us a recommendation for the CEO of Tech City is just hysterical."
The job application was made in 2012, weeks after Johnson began lobbying the government for City Hall to be allowed to take control of Tech City, set up to help the cluster of start-up technology companies in east London.
The revelations add to the mounting questions about the prime minister's failure to declare the conflict of interest when offering favours to the American ex-model and businesswoman while he was alleged to be in a relationship with her. Six people in Arcuri's circle of friends have separately claimed she told them she was having an affair with him.
Last night, senior MPs called on Johnson to address the latest "serious" disclosures. Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative attorney-general, said Johnson should now answer "legitimate" questions about his conduct.
He said: "The fact that Boris Johnson was apparently prepared to provide a letter of endorsement for an extremely important job to somebody who didn't have anything remotely approaching the necessary qualifications is astonishing. It's all the more astonishing if, as is being widely suggested, he was having a personal relationship, which he didn't disclose."
Four official investigations have been initiated following this newspaper's revelations two weeks ago about Johnson and Arcuri. The American received public money in sponsorship from a body Johnson was responsible for as London mayor. Johnson and his team also overruled officials to take her on two overseas trade missions although she was not eligible for either of them.
Last week Arcuri told reporters that all public money she had received in the UK had been legitimate and denied that she was Johnson's lover. She said of the prime minister: "If I was banging the dude and there was some kind of like trail or sex tape, but there's nothing."
Johnson has declined to answer direct questions on the alleged affair but has said he acted with propriety.
[...]
"As well as explain I need no official public endorsement as long as he helps me by writing the letter. (which of course I said we would do.)" She was backed by Milo Yiannopoulos, the far right commentator, who said he had done so as a way of exposing the shallowness of the government's approach to technology.
Drafts of her application and a copy of her CV show that she used the mayor as her reference, and that she talked up Johnson's appearance at her Innotech networking summit as an example of her commercial abilities.
[...]
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Lol
Twitter Link
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
We'll see how the election goes, it can't be put off forever no matter how much the cowards opposite want to keep their cushy jobs without facing the electorate.
Boris inherited this Parliament from May who lost the majority after her disastrous campaign. You can see from the abject fear in the Labour benches they don't really think Boris will be a loser.
Lie after lie after lie. It's quite a legacy Johnson's going to have.
And now he's blocking Brexit -again- but pulling his deal away from a second reading.
The hypocrisy and irony is beyond measure.
What lie? There haven't been any lies I see.
He's not blocking Brexit, Parliament has been singularly incapable of doing anything for years and he has no majority so he has seeking one from the people and then Brexit can be implemented. He already has a deal so if you want Brexit complete and us to move on with our lives then vote Conservative and you'll get Boris's deal implemented. Job done.
He lied about leaving in October.
He lied about creating a border in the Irish sea.
He lied about securing a trade agreement before triggering the process to leave.
He lied about checks needed between NI and GB.
He lied twice about examples of EU regulations we could scrap.
Whether you consider them lies or not is down to your own conscience. Regardless, they are broken promises, mis-truths or ridiculous promises. They all add up to a PM and cabinent that has zero credibility and simply cannot be truated.
And he is blocking Brexit. If he really wanted it, or believed in it (lol), he'd take his "fantastic" deal to parliament for a second reading, as per parliament's wishes.